MINNEAPOLIS — An advocacy group for Muslims in Minnesota has asked the FBI to investigate claims that some of its agents repeatedly tried to intimidate a Somali man.

Lori Saroya, executive director of the Minnesota chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the Somali accuser alleges that two FBI agents tried several times to enlist him as an undercover informant. When the man refused their offers, the agents allegedly threatened the man, Saroya said.

“They told him if he didn’t work for them, if he did not become an informant, that the agents would delay his immigration – his immigration papers,” Saroya said. “They told him they would spread a picture of him all over the community. And after they did that, everyone in the community would be scared to talk to him.”

An FBI spokesman said the agency’s Minneapolis branch is investigating the claim.

Minnesota Public Radio, 30 January 2013

See also “CAIR-MN welcomes FBI probe of alleged abuses by agents”, CAIR press release, 30 January 2013