United States of America v. Ibn Awaan Haneef Safeeullah

United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Submitted June 12, 2025*
Decided June 13, 2025
Before
DIANE S. SYKES, Chief Judge
MICHAEL Y. SCUDDER, Circuit Judge
DORIS L. PRYOR, Circuit Judge
No. 24-2707
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
IBN AWAAN HANEEF SAFEEULLAH,
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Northern District of
Illinois, Western Division.
No. 23 CR 50036-1
Lindsay C. Jenkins†,
Judge.
O R D E R
In this appeal, Ibn Awaan Safeeullah (also known as Ibnawaan Safeeullah)
challenges the validity of his indictment and his conviction for possessing a weapon
while a federal prisoner. We affirm.
* We have agreed to decide the case without oral argument because the appeal is
frivolous. F ED. R. A PP . P. 34(a)(2)(A).
† Judge Jenkins, who sits with the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division,
handled this case on reassignment by the district court’s executive committee.
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with F ED. R. APP . P. 32.1

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No. 24-2707 Page 2
In November 2022, guards at a federal prison in Thomson, Illinois, discovered
that Safeeullah had hidden in his waistband a seven-inch piece of plastic that was
sharpened into a point. A federal grand jury indicted him on one count of possessing a
prohibited object, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1791(a)(2), (b)(3), (d)(1)(B). Safeeullah asked
to represent himself, and a magistrate judge—after conducting a colloquy to confirm
that his waiver of the right to counsel was knowing and intelligent—allowed him to
proceed pro se.
Safeeullah then moved to dismiss the indictment. His argument is obscure, but
he appeared to challenge the indictment on grounds that it named a “DEBTOR” or
“PROPERTY” or “CORPORATION” rather than his own name—“The Living,
Breathing, Sentient Being.” District Judge Reinhard denied the motion as frivolous. As
the judge explained, the indictment contained all the elements of the charged crime and
adequately informed Safeeullah of the nature of the charge. Citing United States v.
Benabe, 654 F.3d 753 (7th Cir. 2011), the judge added that we repeatedly have rejected
similar sovereign-citizen arguments.
Safeeullah filed two additional motions to dismiss the indictment, reprising
many of the same arguments. Judge Jenkins, who had been reassigned the case, denied
these motions for the reasons that Judge Reinhard stated.
A jury later convicted Safeeullah, and Judge Jenkins sentenced him to 12 months
and a day in prison.
On appeal, Safeeullah maintains that the indictment was defective because it did
not state an offense against “Ibn Awaan Safeeullah,” who is the “The Living, Breathing,
Sentient Being.” But we have again and again spurned arguments that a defendant is a
sovereign citizen beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. See, e.g., United States v. Jones,
65 F.4th 926, 928 (7th Cir. 2023); Bey v. State, 847 F.3d 559, 560–61 (7th Cir. 2017); Benabe,
654 F.3d at 767.
Safeeullah tries to distinguish Benabe and related sovereign-citizen cases based
on the absence in those cases of unrebutted, sworn affidavits that contested the validity
of the indictment. This distinction is immaterial. Indeed, in Benabe we endorsed the
district judge’s decision to ignore an affidavit that advanced nonsensical sovereign-
citizen arguments. Benabe, 654 F.3d at 767. Here, the two district judges rightly
disregarded Safeeullah’s affidavit because it was baseless and fantastic. See United States
v. Coleman, 138 F.4th 489, ___, 2025 WL 1407346 at *14 (7th Cir. May 15, 2025); United
States v. Hunter, 197 F.3d 862, 865 (7th Cir. 1999). Safeeullah’s sovereign-citizen

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No. 24-2707 Page 3
arguments, even if presented in a sworn affidavit, “should be rejected summarily.”
Benabe, 654 F.3d at 767.
Finally, Safeeullah cites provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, statutes
concerning the registration of foreign agents, two out-of-circuit cases, and various
religious texts and maxims. None of these relate in any way to the sufficiency of the
indictment or his conviction.
AFFIRMED

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