Emails point to councilmember as accuser of colleague

City Councilmember Mohammed Hassan

By Charles Sercombe
A few weeks ago there were several emails read at a city council meeting, accusing Councilmember Abu Musa of not being a Hamtramck resident and of falling asleep at council meetings.
Those emails had an unintended effect: a hunt for their author. A number of people suspected they came from the same person; moreover, one who was using a phony name.
Suspicion focused on Councilmember Mohammed Hassan for turning on his council colleague, who was next in line to be mayor if Mayor Amer Ghalib were to leave town to, for example, take a job with the Trump administration.
Hassan was successful in getting enough votes on council to remove Musa as mayor pro tem, thus scuttling Musa’s chance of becoming mayor.
And that action further ramped up the suspicions as to the origins of those emails.
As it turns out, there is a reason to think Hassan was behind at least one email, that was supposedly from a person named “Omar Khan,” which accused Musa of not being a resident. The email address that “Omar Khan” used, omra12@hotmail.com, is linked to Hassan.
A simple Google search produced that link between the email address and Hassan.
The Review also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the city for other emails that came from that email address.
Back in 2013, Hassan used that email address and Omar Khan’s name in a communication that was sent to the city clerk’s office requesting election information from the November General election of that year.
Here is the content of that email:
From: OMRA KHAN <omra12@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 7, 2013 7:17 AM
To: August Gitschlag <agitschlag@hamtramckcity.com>
Subject: RE: Saturday and Monday Daily AV Report

Good Morning August, please E-mail me the total AVS report for Nov. 5th Election and also Election result by precinct.

Mohammed Hassan

> Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2013 13:33:05 -0500
> From: agitschlag@hamtramckcity.com
> To: agitschlag@hamtramckcity.com
> Subject: Saturday and Monday Daily AV Report

The Review reached out to Hassan for comment but he did not reply. The Review also reached out to Musa for comment, but he also did not respond.
At this point it’s unclear whether the city or council will take action against Hassan.
Hassan is also facing possible criminal charges for violations related to the 2023 city council election.
Posted Jan. 24, 2025

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