Trial Of Man Accused Of Plotting Terrorism Attack Delayed To Review Legality Of Spy Planes

TAMPA, FL — The trial of Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, accused of planning a terrorist attack in Tampa Bay, has been put on hold until the court determines he's competent to stand trial and weighs in on whether FBI spy plane surveillance is admissible, the U.S. District Court in Tampa announced Tuesday.

On Aug. 30, Al-Azhari's legal counsel, Samuel Landes of the Federal Public Defender's Office, filed a motion to suppress FBI video footage taken from a spy plane that Landes contends was illegal because the FBI didn't have a warrant.

A federal grand jury indicted 24-year-old Al-Azhari in June 2020 after he was accused of purchasing guns and bomb-making materials and planning terrorist attacks at various locations in Tampa Bay on behalf of the Islamic State group.

Al-Azhari was charged May 27, 2020, with attempting to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State group of Iraq along with violations of the National Firearms Act.

The charges were handed down after the FBI, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies discovered chat room conversations and emails in which Al-Azhari discussed carrying out mass shootings and bombings.

The U.S. Justice Department said Al-Azhari researched and scouted such targets as Honeymoon Island in Dunedin, the Tampa FBI field office, Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa and the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Tampa, where he told an FBI informant he hoped to kill more people than Omar Mateen did at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando June 12, 2016.

According to the informant, Al-Azhari said he wanted "to die in a shootout with disbelievers. I want to take revenge. I don't want to take four or five. I want to take at least 50, like brother Omar Mateen in Orlando did."

Two days after he was charged, Al-Azhari's 22-year-old sister, Heba Momtaz Al-Azhari, was shot to death after she attacked a Temple Terrace police officer with a knife.

According to family members, she was distraught after learning about the charges against her brother.

See these related stories for more in-depth coverage:

• Tampa Man Accused Of Planning ISIS Terrorist Attack On Tampa Bay
• Video: Woman Killed By Police Was Sister Of Accused Terrorist
• Tampa Man Indicted On Charges Of Planning ISIS Terrorist Attack

According to the FBI, Al-Azhari is a U.S. citizen who grew up in Brea and Garden Grove, California.

He and his father, Momtaz, visited Saudi Arabia in 2015. During that time, they were both convicted of planning to travel to Syria to participate in a jihad and join the terrorist group, Jaysh al Case, to fight the Syrian government.

Al-Azhari served three years in a Saudi Arabian prison before he was deported to the United States in December 2018. He lived with his grandmother in California for more than a year, then relocated with family members to Florida in June 2019.

FBI agents arrested Al-Azhari after he took possession of weapons, including a Glock handgun and silencer, that he purchased on eBay from a Texas gun dealer. The FBI said he also purchased a military-style bulletproof vest, laser pointer, GPS tracking device, camera drone, backpack with charging cable, face mask and a car fuel trap solvent filter, which can be used to make silencers.

Additionally, the FBI said it obtained videos in which Al-Azhari rehearsed statements he planned to release before or after the attacks and filmed on his iPhone while holding various weapons. Agents said he even rented an apartment in Temple Terrace, minutes away from the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel, so he could conduct surveillance of the casino in preparation for a mass shooting.

According to the motion to suppress evidence, the FBI illegally obtained evidence using "a secret spy plane surveillance program" consisting of a fleet of nine small planes, mostly Cessnas, to conduct surveillance with high-tech video cameras, infrared technology to detect heat signatures and a cell site simulator that tricks cell phones in the area in connecting to it instead of the nearest cell phone tower.

Flying at about 10,000 feet, the planes circled Al-Azhari's home, followed him to his workplace at Home Depot in Tampa, to an urgent care clinic, on a trip to Honeymoon Island State Park and on a trip to the former Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Landes said the FBI only halted the spy plane surveillance when Al-Azhari was undergoing inpatient mental health treatment.

In his motion, Landes said he believes the prosecution will use the videos to assert that Al-Azhari was scouting sites for a mass shooting. He claimed the videos constitute an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment because the FBI did not obtain a search warrant.

The FBI claims the surveillance was legal because the surveillance program is not classified, although the planes are registered "covertly."