A Chicago man who was arrested last month for allegedly planning to travel to Somalia and engage in fighting with a foreign terrorist organization, was indicted on the same charges by a federal grand jury, prosecutors said Thursday.
Shaker Masri, 27, who lived in Chicago, Illinois' Gold Coast neighborhood, was arrested on August 3 by members of the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism task Force (JTTF), just hours before he was scheduled to leave Chicago en route to Somalia to allegedly join al-Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
According to a criminal complaint filed at the time his arrest, Masri, a U.S. citizen, began espousing increasingly violent views to an individual he befriended in early 2009, and later began to openly express a desire to participate in a “jihad” and to fight against what he characterized as “infidels.”
During the weeks before his arrest, Masri began to actively plan a trip to Somalia, where he hoped to join the specially designated terrorist group al Shabaab and commit a suicide attack targeting “infidels,” the complaint alleged.
Masri was indicted on one count of attempting to provide material support to al-Shabaab, and one count of attempting to provide material support by use of a weapon of mass destruction outside the United States. He will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court.
Since his arrest, Masri was ordered detained in federal custody without bond.
Both counts carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.
Source: BNO News B.V.
No comments:
Post a Comment