Mahdi Hashi 's family wants to know how he came to be charged in a U.S. court . The case is being handled by the Justice Department and involves allegations that al-Hashimi was an al-Qaeda operative who helped plan attacks on American targets overseas. His family claims he was pressured by Britain 's MI5 secret service to become a spy . ` They always used to tell him , 'you either work for us or you are guilty of being a terrorist , ' '' He vanished from Somalia in 2011 and reappeared in Brooklyn , charged with terror offenses .
Mahdi Hashi 's family wants to know how he came to be charged in a U.S. court . The case is being handled by the Justice Department and involves allegations that al-Hashimi was an al-Qaeda operative who helped plan attacks on American targets overseas. His family claims he was pressured by Britain 's MI5 secret service to become a spy . He vanished from Somalia in 2011 and reappeared in Brooklyn , charged with terror offenses .