Four city councilmembers could be facing felony election charges

Mohammed Hassan

By Charles Sercombe
After months of public speculation, and also growing frustration from Hamtramck City Clerk Rana Faraj, the state Attorney General has finally pulled the trigger.
And that metaphorical trigger is the petitioning of the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council (PACC) to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the cases of four current city councilmembers, a former city councilmember, and a sixth person, a resident, who are all accused of illegally handling absentee ballots.
This now means that four current city councilmembers, out of a total of six, are facing felony election law violations.
The case stems from the 2023 election.
Attorney General Dana Nessel is seeking a special prosecutor to take over the case because of a possible appearance of bias on her part.
That concern stems from Nessel prosecuting pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Michigan, and her past criticism of Hamtramck city councilmembers’ “anti-LGBTQ positions,” especially when, a few years ago, they banned the display of pride flags on public property.
Nessel criticized them for that action, calling them “a national embarrassment.”

Mohammed Alsomiri

Nessel is gay and Jewish. The city council and mayor are all-male and all-Muslim.
“Critics have alleged, albeit without justification, that these prosecutions were brought due to bias against Muslims and/or people of Arab descent,” said Assistant Attorney General and Criminal Bureau chief Danielle Hagaman-Clark in her petition to the PACC.
All but one of those accused is a Muslim.
The following are being investigated:
• City Councilmembers Mohammed Hassan, Muhtasin Sadman, Mohammed Alsomiri and Abu Musa
• Former councilmember Nayeem Choudhury
• Tyrone Slappey
According to the petition, all face accusations that they “conspired to receive unvoted absentee ballots that had been signed by recently naturalized citizens, and to then fill in the candidates of their choosing.”
“In some instances, it is alleged that they paid for votes, as well as had citizens claim addresses they did not live at, in order to gain an advantage in local elections.”
Hassan, Musa and Sadman, who is in his first term, have all denied the accusation.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Musa again stressed he’s innocent, saying, “It was not my election.”
Choudhury has also denied the allegations.

Nayeem Choudhury

Alsomiri and Slappey could not be reached for comment.
The election in 2023 was notable for a curious reason.
In the August Primary Election, Choudhury was the top vote-getter but, in the November election, he fell to fifth place out of a field of six candidates – an unheard-of drop-off for a top contender.
And Sadman, an obscure newcomer to politics, rose from fifth place in the primary election to the number two spot in the November election.
Hassan rose from fourth place — right behind Lynn Blasey, the only female in the election — to go on to become the top-vote getter in November’s election.
Hassan and Sadman’s sudden rise in the November election edged out Blasey from taking a seat on council.
Choudhury also claimed, that in the November 2023 election, 200 absentee ballots had not been counted.

Muhtasin Sadman

Asked why he made this claim, Choudhury told The Review at the time:
“I don’t know, the whole community is shocked and saddened that they voted for me by absentee ballots — over a thousand. They don’t know why I lost against a candidate that came in fifth place in the primary.”
Nothing came of Choudhury’s accusation.
Choudhury is no stranger to accusations of illegal ballot handling. A few years ago, the state police were investigating his own handling of absentee ballots, but it appears the investigation went nowhere.
Not long after the 2023 election, and at the prompting of City Clerk Faraj, agents with the Attorney General’s Office began interviewing voters.
Faraj said there was surveillance recording from security cameras on city hall showing one or more candidates stuffing a ballot drop-off box in front of city hall with ballots.
The practice of filling out ballots for voters is referred to as ballot harvesting – which is illegal.

Abu Musa

It is also illegal to handle other people’s ballots unless they are part of the handler’s immediate family, are living in the same dwelling, or a designated official.
The investigation dragged on without any sign that legal action would happen until it was discovered, last November, that the Attorney General had filed a request for arrest warrants in Wayne County Circuit Court against Hassan and Sadman, as well as against another person who is not included in these latest list of suspects.
The arrest warrants were apparently never acted on.
The charges, as listed on the Wayne County Circuit Court’s online case search, included:
o City Councilmember Mohammed Hassan: Impersonating another (person) to vote at an election, and absentee ballot tampering.
o Councilmember Muhtasin Sadman: Impersonating another (person) to vote at an election, and two charges of inducing an unqualified voter to apply for an absentee ballot.
City Clerk Faraj may have had a hand in pressuring the Attorney General to act on the investigation after she recently issued a statement calling out the office, saying:
“I’m writing to formally express my frustration and deep concern about the ongoing election integrity issues here in Hamtramck, specifically involving a current City Council member who has repeatedly been accused of election fraud.”
As for the surveillance camera footage, she said the “cameras have done exactly what they were intended to do: they’ve captured clear evidence of suspicious activities, like multiple instances of large batches of absentee ballots being dropped into boxes at once, strongly suggesting a single individual rather than multiple legitimate voters.”
(Faraj says she cannot make the surveillance recording public because of an ongoing investigation.)
Faraj also complained about an unnamed city councilmember who “continues to act as though he’s above the law, openly bragging that no one can touch him.”
She added: “He has even personally threatened me before every election, claiming he’ll continue winning elections and escaping any consequences regardless of the evidence against him.”
She later confirmed that the reference was about Councilmember Hassan.
Rumors and suspicions of ballot harvesting have dogged Hamtramck elections in recent years.
Back in 2014, four people, Salim Ahmed, Armani Asad, Russell Mohammed and Mohammed Rahmon, were found guilty of illegally handling absentee ballots – a felony.
Despite the convictions, none of them were sentenced to a prison term.
This is an election season in Hamtramck, with three city council seats on the ballot as well as the position of mayor.
The primary election will be in August, as usual, and those interested in running for office have until April 22 to file with the city clerk.
So far, it appears Mayor Amer Ghalib will not be seeking re-election if he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be President Trump’s nomination as ambassador to Kuwait.
Councilmembers Khalil Refai and Muhith Mahmood have filed to run for mayor.
Running for city council, so far, is Saed Yousef.
According to the city charter, those convicted of a felony cannot hold public office.
Posted April 11, 2025