A Key West man charged with attempting to use a backpack bomb and trying to help ISIS went on trial in U.S. District Court Monday.
"This is a case of a man who believed in the ideals of ISIS, or ISIL," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Anton in opening arguments, calling Harlem Suarez, 25, "an individual who was obsessed with ISIS and set on violence."
Suarez's attorney said his client's Facebook posts were "just talk and no action" and that he only took any steps toward action after "persistent pressure and intimidation" from undercover federal operatives.
The Facebook posts were reported to the FBI in the spring of 2015. After that, an undercover informant contacted Suarez and they met in person in Key West and later in Homestead, where Suarez recorded a "recruitment video" for ISIS.
"The defendant was fixated on building a bomb, fixated on recruiting others to join his cause," Anton said.
Defense attorney Richard Della Fera said his client repeatedly ignored or tried to avoid text and phone messages from the undercover operatives and that he only took action on the purported bomb after one of the operatives discovered where he lived with his parents on Stock Island.
Suarez is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
