(KCRA) It was a headline few could forget: A leader of the Islamic State group found in Sacramento. The Iraqi government wanted Omar Ameen arrested and extradited immediately to face trial for murder. That push for hurried extradition, though, turned into a two-year fight by a defense team who say that’s not the story at all.
On the morning of Aug. 15, 2018, agents with the FBI, Sacramento sheriff’s deputies and Sacramento Metro Fire converged on an apartment off of Eastern Avenue in Sacramento County. They were all part of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and looking for Ameen, an auto mechanic and Iraqi refugee. The government says he is a terrorist and a murderer.
“Certainly the allegations were really dramatic,” says Rachelle Barbour with the federal defender’s office, public defenders for the federal courts.
