10 September 2006
Hamtramck man jailed for trying to board plane with knife
FBI says he had one-way ticket to Yemen The FBI is investigating the case of a 21-year-old Hamtramck man with a one-way ticket to Yemen who tried to board a plane with a knife hidden in a phone book.
Mohammed Ghanem, a native of Yemen, remains in jail after a Romulus judge set a $500,000 bond on Saturday. Ghanem was stopped on Thursday at Detroit Metro Airport by security officials with the Transportation Security Administration after they detected that he had a knife "artfully concealed" in a book, said airport spokesman Michael Conway.
Someone had carved out the inside of the phone book, and placed the knife inside it, said Ghanem's attorney, Nabih Ayad. "He said he didn't know where the knife came from,'' Ayad said. Ghanem was on his way to Yemen to get married, he said.
On Saturday, Ghanem was arraigned in Romulus district court on a felony charge of possessing a weapon in the area of an airport, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years.
Ghanem remained in a Wayne County jail Saturday after the judge set bond at $500,000. One concern among officials is that the man had a one-way ticket to Yemen, Conway said.
Ghanem was born in Yemen and is now a legal permanent resident of the U.S., Ayad said. He works as a bus-boy in a coney island in metro Detroit.
Ghanem lives in Hamtramck with family members, some of whom have been questioned by the FBI, Ayad said.
According to Ayad, it appeared that the cover of the phone book was torn off. Someone then cut out a section, slipped in the knife, and covered it back up with the cover.
POSTED BY /www.freep.com
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