Trial delayed in Milwaukee Masonic temple shooting plot

The trial for a man accused of plotting a mass shooting in defense of Islam at a Masonic temple in downtown Milwaukee has been delayed.

The trial was set to begin Wednesday in federal court in Milwaukee, but prosecutors have appealed a judge’s decisions to exclude certain evidence.

Attorneys for 26-year-old Samy Hamzeh planned to argue that FBI informants encouraged him for months to purchase weapons for the attack and entrapped their client, who they say never owned a gun, has no criminal record, and was incapable of mass murder. The FBI has said their agents thwarted an act of terrorism when they arrested Hamzeh in January 2016.

The Journal Sentinel reports the federal trial has dragged on for four years because hundreds of hours of conversations in Arabic had to be transcribed and translated to English.