44 F
New York
Friday, March 29, 2024

Teenager Accused of Supporting Islamic State Will Be Tried as Adult

Related Articles

-Advertisement-

Must read

A New York teenager, who remains unidentified in court papers, was charged with conspiring to support Islamic State should.

A New York teenager, who remains unidentified in court papers, was charged with conspiring to support Islamic State should. A federal judge ruled that he should be tried as an adult, despite having been only 17 at the time when he allegedly committed the crime.

According to Vos Iz Neias, the teenager is among a half dozen men in New York and New Jersey whom authorities have arrested since June 2015 as part of a broader investigation into a purported conspiracy to aid the militant group.

Reuters reports that U.S. authorities have pursued a number of “lone wolf” plotters who were apparently inspired by Islamic State’s propaganda, including investigations in all 50 states.

Islamic State, also known as ISIS, admitted to the last week’s attacks in Paris. In the course of the attack, 130 people were killed. The group also claimed responsibility for downing a Russian airliner in Egypt in October 2015, killing 224 people.

“Federal authorities said the teenager, who is now 18, was friends with Munther Omar Saleh, a college student in the New York City borough of Queens,” according to Reuters.

Prosecutors stated that Saleh and the unnamed man discussed plans to assemble an explosive device to set off in the New York metropolitan area. On June 19th, 2015, federal agents were following the two men in a surveillance vehicle when the men got out of their car and ran at the agents, prompting their arrest at gunpoint.

The Justice Department had filed a sealed motion to try the said teenager as an adult, citing the seriousness of the charged crime and the fact that he was just shy of 18 at the time of his arrest.

In an opinion made public this week, U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn agreed with the government’s argument.

Two of the other men charged in the conspiracy, Samuel Topaz and Alaa Saadeh, have pleaded guilty in New Jersey. They admitted in court that they discussed plans to travel overseas to join Islamic State with Saleh and Saadeh’s brother, Nader Saadeh, who has also been charged, reports Reuters.

Dina Hoffmann

balance of natureDonate

Latest article

- Advertisement -