Judge: Terror suspect to be moved from solitary

updated 3:25 a.m. ET Sept. 2, 2007

MINNEAPOLIS - A federal judge has ordered a terrorism-support suspect transferred from solitary confinement to more typical pretrial detention.

Mohammed Warsame, a Canadian of Somali descent, was attending college in Minneapolis in 2003 when FBI agents questioned him about time he allegedly spent in two terrorist training camps in Afghanistan three years earlier.

He was arrested as a material witness and indicted on charges of conspiring to provide material support to Al-Qaida and of lying to federal agents about traveling to Afghanistan and sending $2,000 to an associate there.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim found that the “special administrative measures” that the Marshal’s Service used in Warsame’s detention were no longer needed.

“Some level of segregation of Warsame will continue to be necessary ... but more typical pretrial detention will permit greater access to Warsame by his family and lawyers,” Tunheim wrote.

However, the judge refused to release Warsame on bail pending his trial, saying nothing had changed since an earlier finding that he was a flight risk and a threat to public safety.

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