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NewsFebruary 19, 2015

ST. LOUIS -- A Bosnian immigrant accused of funneling money and military supplies to terror groups in Iraq and Syria will remain in federal custody, after her lawyer told a judge Wednesday he wants clarity on her immigration status before seeking bond...

By JIM SALTER ~ Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- A Bosnian immigrant accused of funneling money and military supplies to terror groups in Iraq and Syria will remain in federal custody, after her lawyer told a judge Wednesday he wants clarity on her immigration status before seeking bond.

Sedina Hodzic, 35, of St. Louis County, is among six people named in a federal indictment earlier this month. Her husband, Ramiz Hodzic, and another St. Louis County man also were named, along with two people from Illinois and one from New York state.

Sedina Hodzic's attorney, Paul D'Agrosa, waived her request to be released on bond during a brief court appearance, but said he will revisit the request once her immigration status is made clear.

Afterward, D'Agrosa said immigration authorities would detain Hodzic if she were freed, so she would simply move from one jail to another.

"I don't want to say she's an illegal immigrant because I don't believe that's true," D'Agrosa said of his client, who has been in the U.S. 18 years. But, "There are too many uncertainties."

The indictment says the Hodzics have been living in the U.S. as refugees. A message seeking comment Wednesday from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman was not immediately returned.

D'Agrosa said there is concern about Hodzic's three children, ages 16, 12 and not quite 2. The children are staying with a friend while both parents are jailed.

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Ramiz Hodzic, 40, faces a detention hearing Friday.

All six suspects are Bosnian immigrants accused of using Facebook, PayPal, Western Union and the U.S. Postal Service to coordinate shipments of money and supplies to terror groups, including one affiliated with al-Qaida.

Last week, a federal judge in Chicago refused to release Mediha Medy Salkicevic, 34, of Schiller Park, Illinois. Detention hearing dates have not been set for Armin Harcevic, 37, of St. Louis County; Jasminka Ramic, 42, of Rockford, Illinois; and Nihad Rosic, 26, of Utica, New York.

The indictment accuses Ramiz Hodzic of making 10 wire transfers totaling $8,850, and arranging two shipments of military supplies valued at $2,451. Sedina Hodzic is accused of aiding one of those transfers and shipping six boxes of military supplies to an intermediary in Turkey.

The indictment alleges that the Hodzics were helped by Abdullah Ramo Pazara, another Bosnian immigrant who left St. Louis in May 2013 to fight in Syria. Authorities say he died in Syria.

Ramiz Hodzic and Rosic are also charged with conspiring to kill and maim persons abroad. Rosic is accused of trying to board a Norwegian Airlines flight in New York in July, with plans to travel to Syria to fight alongside Pazara and others.

About 70,000 Bosnian immigrants live in the St. Louis area, the largest population of Bosnian refugees in the U.S. Most are Muslim and arrived after the war that broke out in the early 1990s.

Leaders of the St. Louis Bosnian community have distanced themselves from the suspects, saying immigrants in St. Louis have worked tirelessly to embrace their adopted home.

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