- Charges against Adeeb Nasir and Adil Justice Ahmed Nasir were dismissed on Nov. 25.
- The men were initially charged with possessing hoax dynamite after a September arrest.
- The two were arrested while police investigated an explosive device that was placed under a news vehicle.
SALT LAKE CITY — State felony charges against two men who were arrested while police investigated an explosive device that was located under a Utah news organization's SUV in September have been dismissed.
Adeeb Nasir, 58, and Adil Justice Ahmed Nasir, 31, were arrested on Sept. 13 as part of an investigation into a suspicious device that was located by the Salt Lake police and Unified fire bomb squads under a news media vehicle the day prior.
The two men were charged on Sept. 22 in 3rd District Court with two counts of manufacturing, using or possessing a hoax weapon of mass destruction, a second-degree felony, after investigators found dynamite, guns and marijuana in their Magna home, according to charging documents. A bomb technician said both sticks of dynamite were deemed "inert."
During a preliminary hearing on Nov. 25, the charges against both men were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could potentially be refiled.
In a statement on Wednesday night, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said a continuance was requested from the judge at the Nov. 25 preliminary hearing, since they were still waiting on reports, warrants and discovery from the FBI. Instead, "the judge denied that request and dismissed the cases without prejudice."
The Nasirs were arrested after a federal search warrant was conducted at their residence. At the time, Gill said the state charges were filed for the hoax dynamite and weapons located in the home, but a federal investigation would continue.
As of Dec. 3, however, no federal indictments have been filed against either man. The state criminal charges also did not make any connection between the Nasirs and the incident with the news vehicle.
Less than a month after the Nasirs were arrested, a federal grand jury indicted a different man, Christopher Solomon Proctor, for allegedly placing the homemade device under the news outlet's SUV.
Proctor, 45, was charged with attempted arson in interstate commerce and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
According to the federal complaint, on Sept. 12 at about 4:15 a.m., "an incendiary destructive device, a 2.5-gallon plastic gas can with a lit multifoot-long fuse" was placed under a KSTU news vehicle. But the fuse went out before it reached the gas can, so the device did not explode.
Proctor was ordered by a judge early last month to remain in custody pending the outcome of his legal case.
