USF Student Pleads Not Guilty in Explosives Case

Oct 24, 05:17 PM

Current Headlines: By Mitch Stacy, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Oct. 24--TAMPA -- An Egyptian college student accused of making an Internet video demonstrating how to make a detonator for terrorist bombs pleaded not guilty to federal charges Wednesday.

Suspended University of South Florida engineering student Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed's attorney entered a written plea of not guilty for him. He was scheduled for arraignment Thursday.

Mohamed, 24, will remain jailed on federal charges of distributing information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction. He and another Egyptian student, Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, also are charged with carrying explosive materials across state lines.

The two were arrested during an Aug. 5 traffic stop in Goose Creek, S.C., about 15 miles northwest of Charleston. In the trunk of the 2000 Toyota Camry, according an FBI agent's statement, police found 20 feet of fuse, a box of .22-caliber bullets, a drill, several gallons of gasoline, PVC piping and gun powder.

On Mohamed's laptop, according to the FBI agent's statement, was a video he made demonstrating how to convert a remote-control toy into a detonator for explosives.

Mohamed told authorities he made the video "to assist those persons in Arabic countries to defend themselves against the infidels invading their countries," according to the agent's statement.

Mohamed said "he considered American troops, and those military forces fighting with the American military, to be invaders of Arab countries," the statement said.

The video was uploaded to YouTube, according to court documents, but it was not clear whether it was ever publicly viewed.

The students told authorities they were carrying fireworks; Megahed's attorney now contends that his client didn't know anything about the items in the trunk.

They claimed they were on their way to a North Carolina beach and that they ended up in Goose Creek, near a Naval weapons station, because they were looking for cheap gas.

Mohamed is being represented by locally prominent defense attorney John Fitzgibbons, who was hired for him by the Egyptian government. Fitzgibbons, best known for representing teacher Debra Lafave after she had sex with a middle-school student, declined to comment on the case Wednesday.

Megahed, represented by a federal public defender, pleaded not guilty earlier this month. A judge's decision is pending on whether he should be freed on bond.

A trial is set for December, but Fitzgibbons has said he doubts it will happen that soon.

If convicted, Mohamed could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. Megahed faces up to 10 years.

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