Yeshiva World News

Court papers say a college student inspired by the Islamic State terror group has been arrested on charges he was planning an attack in New York City.

Munther Omar Saleh was named in a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn. The papers identify Saleh as a 20-year-student enrolled at an unidentified college in Queens.

The complaint says an investigation revealed that Saleh is a “fervent supporter” of the Islamic State. It says he searched the Internet for information about pressure-cooker bombs and city landmarks and tourist attractions.

The court papers say agents were tailing Saleh’s car on June 7 when they arrested him and an unnamed co-conspirator.

Prosecutors wouldn’t comment on Tuesday about whether Saleh has appeared in court. The name of his attorney wasn’t available.

(AP)

State police expanded the search Wednesday for two escaped murderers beyond a 16-square-mile area of woods, fields and swamps where the manhunt has been most intense.

Clinton County Sheriff David Favro said Tuesday that rain in recent days has been washing away any scent dogs might find and interfering with thermal imaging devices used to detect body heat.

No vehicles were reported stolen in the area, which leads searchers to believe convicts David Sweat and Richard Matt were still near the prison they escaped from. Search dogs earlier caught the scent of the men, and authorities found evidence indicating they may have spent time there.

More than 800 law enforcement officers who are combing the rural area now have shifted their focus eastward along Route 374 leading from the village of Dannemora, home of the Clinton Correctional Facility, in far northern New York.

The Clinton County district attorney’s office scheduled a news conference for noon Wednesday in nearby Plattsburgh to provide updates on the search.

Sweat and Matt escaped June 6 from the maximum-security prison near the Canadian border.

Sweat, 35, was serving a life sentence without parole in the killing of a sheriff’s deputy. Matt, 48, was doing 25 years to life for the kidnap, torture and hacksaw dismemberment of his former boss.

Meanwhile, the prison worker charged with helping the killers flee by providing them with hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools had a jail visit Tuesday from her husband, who also works in the prison.

Favro described Joyce Mitchell as “composed” during the morning visit with her husband, Lyle Mitchell.

Prosecutors say Mitchell, a prison tailoring shop instructor who befriended the inmates, had agreed to be the getaway driver but backed out because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.

District Attorney Andrew Wylie said Monday that there was no evidence the men had a Plan B once Mitchell backed out of the escape.

But Favro said while he has “no concrete information,” he doesn’t believe the escapees would have counted only on Mitchell for the success of their “elaborate, well-thought-out escape plan.”

“My theory — my theory only — is that she was Plan B,” he said Tuesday. “I would have viewed her as baggage, almost, for them to be able to escape into freedom because she’s leaving behind a family and a husband.”

He said investigators won’t be certain until the fugitives are caught.

But, Favro said, “I find it difficult to believe right from Day 1 that they would go through that — probably took some time to really map together — and they would get out on the hopes that a civilian worker that they found would assist them in actually getting away.”

Mitchell was charged last week with supplying contraband, including a punch and a screwdriver, to the two inmates. She has pleaded not guilty. She has been suspended without pay from her $57,000-a-year job overseeing inmates who sew clothes and learn to repair sewing machines.

Authorities say the convicts used power tools to cut through the backs of their adjacent cells, broke through a brick wall and then cut into a steam pipe and slithered through it, finally emerging outside the prison walls through a manhole. Wylie says they apparently used tools stored by prison contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night’s work.

In Broome County, where Sweat and his cousin killed a deputy in 2002, Sheriff David Harder said his office has been investigating since Sweat broke out of prison, contacting his family and associates and committing about 50 officers to the case. Sweat was “a kind of survivalist,” who was caught in the woods in New York’s Southern Tier five days after that killing after someone came forward with information, he said.

(AP)

The NYPD says two officers were hit by a car during a traffic stop on Staten Island.

It happened at about 1 a.m. Tuesday after the officers stopped a late-model Nissan Altima for running a red light. As they were approaching the car, it shifted into reverse and hit the officers before taking off.

Police say one officer was hit in the right knee and the other was struck in the right hip. Both officers were treated at a hospital and released.

Investigators are looking for three men who were in the vehicle that fled.

(AP)

With the New York Legislative session drawing to a close and passage of an education tax credit bill still in play, Agudath Israel of America representatives traveled to Albany again today. Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president; Rabbi Shmuel Lefkowitz, Vice President for Community Affairs; Chaskel Bennett and Leon Goldenberg, both members of the Board of Trustees, met with Senate Leadership, including Senate Majority leader John Flanagan and Senators Jeff Klein, Dean Skelos, Simcha Felder, Marty Golden, Dianne Savino, and Assembly members, Michael Cusick, Dov Hikind, Joe Lentol, Mike Simanowitz, Peter Abbate, Alec Brook- Krasney and members of the Governor’s staff, to urge them to remain steadfast in their support for tuition relief for non public schools.

With over 400,000 children attending non-public schools in New York State an Education Tax Credit bill would give needy New Yorkers a measure of tuition relief and thereby the ability to send their children to the school that’s right for them.

“The process is nearing it’s conclusion and we will continue to work as hard as possible to achieve a tangible measure of assistance for the thousands of families who are struggling with the costs of tuition ” said Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel. We came up to Albany today to urge all the relevant parties to work towards an agreement that provides real relief for beleaguered parents.”

Elected officials in Albany have taken notice of the vocal campaign to pass an education tax credit and activists reiterated the importance for every concerned constituent to reach out to his or her assembly-member and add their voice to the massive grass- roots effort.

To contact your Assembly-member, click here.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

Council Member Mark Treyger is renewing his call for the NYPD to bring ShotSpotter technology to Coney Island and for the mayor to include funding in his proposed budget to hire 1,000 additional officers in response to a rise in shootings, including several incidents this past weekend. In a June 2nd letter to Police Commissioner William Bratton, Council Member Treyger requested that the 60th Precinct, which includes Coney Island, be included in use of ShotSpotter, which has been employed in high crime neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx as part of a pilot program. ShotSpotter uses real time data and technology to immediately notify the police of incidents of shots being fired in its coverage area. This can help reduce police response times while providing the city with an accurate picture of the number of shootings that actually occur in a specific community and pinpointing neighborhood hotspots where the majority of incidents take place. In addition, Council Member Treyger is continuing to call on Mayor de Blasio to include funding in his executive city budget that would allow the NYPD to hire 1,000 additional officers to be deployed in Coney Island and other areas with gun violence problems.

In his letter to Commissioner Bratton, Council Member Treyger expresses concern with the impact that shootings are having on the law-abiding residents of Coney Island and the need for additional police resources to combat this problem, especially during the summer months. As of June 7, there had been six shooting incidents in the 60th Precinct, according to the NYPD, a slight increase from last year. However, Council Member Treyger has heard numerous reports from residents of other shootings that did not result in a person struck and were not included in NYPD crime reports. In addition, there were at least two shooting incidents this past weekend, including one on Friday night near the Searise apartments at Neptune Avenue and W. 36th Street during which nobody was struck and one on Sunday afternoon near 2750 Neptune Avenue, in which a 68-year-old man and an 18-year-old man were shot less than a block from a middle school and a public park.

“It is clear that the city and NYPD must step up its efforts to combat this growing problem and take immediate steps to reduce gun violence in Coney Island. I am urging Commissioner Bratton to expand the department’s use of this proven technology so that we get a clearer and fuller picture of the violence that is plaguing this community and so that police can immediately respond when a shooting does occur. We also must increase the visibility of officers in locations suffering from high crime rates by adding 1,000 to the city’s police force. It is unfair that law-abiding citizens cannot walk down their block or go shopping in the middle of the day without fearing for their lives. I am very concerned about the rise in shootings in Coney Island and across the city, as well as the many incidents that do not go reported in official NYPD statistics. Bringing ShotSpotter technology and additional officers to the 60th Precinct will help the NYPD finally hold accountable the few individuals who are causing distress in our community,” said Council Member Treyger.

Council Member Treyger joined the Coney Island Anti-Violence Collaborative and residents at an anti-violence rally Monday outside at Neptune Avenue and W. 36th Street to send a message that the community will not tolerate this senseless violence and to demand immediate action from the city to help end the shootings.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, (FJCC) leaders met on Sunday with Borough President Eric Adams on a slew of timely issues affecting the boroughs growing Orthodox Jewish Community.‎

The Albany battle to achieve tax credits for Yeshiva parents was highest on the busy agenda. The Borough President is recognized as the political leader of ‎Kings County, a borough with the states largest Assembly delegation. FJCC activists feel that it is imperative to bring the Borough President’s voice to the conversation and asked Mr. Adams to get more personally involved. ‎With Brooklyn having the most Yeshiva students of any county in the state and a very sizable catholic and parochial school population, Mr. Adams agreed that the issue needs to be resolved in a way that helps Brooklyn families and ‎issued a letter on Monday to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie urging the passage of a tuition relief bill, writing that “making private education available to those that have the most need is an important goal”.

Josh Mehlman, FJCC Chairman, expressed the community’s sincere appreciation to the Borough President for his willingness to get personally involved in an issue so vital to thousands of his constituents.

(YWN Desk – NYC)

Two murderers who escaped from an upstate New York prison remain at large as the manhunt enters its 11th day.

More than 800 law enforcement officers are keeping up an intense search for Richard Matt and David Sweat, who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility near the Canadian border June 6.

On Monday, a woman charged with helping the killers flee the maximum-security prison by providing them hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools made a second court appearance.

Joyce Mitchell entered court in Plattsburgh wearing a striped prison jumpsuit and a bulletproof vest.

Prosecutors say the 51-year-old Mitchell agreed to be the getaway driver but backed out because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.

Mitchell was an instructor in the prison tailoring shop.

(AP)

New York Sen. Charles Schumer wants airlines to scrap a proposal to reduce the allowed size of carry-on luggage.

He warns that a 20 percent reduction would force travelers to pay more for check-in fees or spend money on millions of pieces of new luggage.

The Democratic senator says it’s just another way for airlines to make money at the expense of travelers.

Schumer says customers deserve a break, especially since airline profits are expected to soar this year.

The current maximum carry-on size ranges from a length of 22 inches to 24 inches, a width of 14 to 18 inches and a depth of 9 to 16 inches.

The trade association for the industry wants to standardize carry-on size to 21.5 inches by 13.5 inches and a depth of 7.5 inches.

(AP)

A northern New York prison worker accused of helping two killers escape last weekend gave the men hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit, according to criminal complaints.

Prison tailor shop instructor Joyce Mitchell is accused of befriending inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora and giving them contraband.

Mitchell’s hands were cuffed in front of her and she stared straight ahead while she was arraigned Friday night in Plattsburgh on charges of felony promoting prison contraband and misdemeanor criminal facilitation. She was ordered jailed on $100,000 cash bail.

Mitchell’s family has said she would not have helped the convicts break out. She pleaded not guilty.

Mitchell has another court appearance scheduled for Monday.

Police say they won’t stop looking for the escaped inmates.

(AP)

Federal prosecutors have urged a judge to reject former New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s bid to throw out criminal charges he faces.

The government made arguments in papers filed Friday in Manhattan federal court. Two weeks ago, the Democrat’s lawyers had asked Judge Valerie Caproni to throw out the case. They wrote that the charges do not allege a crime, but rather describe longstanding features of New York state government that a prosecutor finds distasteful.

But prosecutors say bribes, kickbacks and extortion are just as illegal in New York as any other state. They say Silver exploited his power to collect $4 million in kickbacks.

Silver has said he will be vindicated.

Silver resigned as Assembly speaker after his January arrest. He has retained his Assembly seat.

(AP)

Police say a man suspected of stealing tires off a car in Brooklyn was shot by an officer but escaped.

A suspected accomplice was arrested on charges including grand larceny and auto stripping.

Police say a plainclothes sergeant spotted 25-year-old Arthur Whaley and 26-year-old Corey Prescod removing the tires from a parked car in Flatbush at Glenwood Road and east 19th Street early Friday.

Police say Whaley was shot in the arm after he menaced the sergeant with a knife and ignored orders to drop it.

Police say Whaley fled and was still being sought Saturday.

Prescod was arrested.

No information was available on whether the two men had attorneys who could comment on the charges.

(AP)

Eight days into the massive manhunt in upstate New York for two convicted killers, state police say they have no new leads.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers blanketed a wooded area Saturday southeast of the maximum-security prison where David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped using power tools and leaving dummies under covers on their prison cots.

By late evening, about 30 officers emerged from the woods along Route 3, a few miles south of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. More officers lined up on the shoulder waiting to be picked up to take a break before continuing the search before darkness sets in.

The massive manhunt for the two killers who escaped from a maximum-security prison eight days ago in upstate New York has residents on edge.

Some say they feel like prisoners in their own home.

Shelly St. Denis, a mother of two who lives near the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora says Saturday that having two convicted murderers on the loose is scary.

She adds, “You’re afraid to be in your house and have someone come in at you that has nothing to lose.”

The search forced the cancellation of a fundraiser for the local volunteer fire department at Cadyville. Organizers of the 50th annual Cadyville Field Day say they chose to cancel Saturday’s event in the name of public safety.

The jail worker accused of helping two convicted murders escape an upstate New York prison a week ago has been moved to a lockup in another county.

Rensselaer County Jail officials say Joyce Mitchell was transported there and arrived at 10 a.m. Saturday. Clinton County Sheriff David Favro requested the move.

Prosecutors say the prison tailor shop instructor befriended the men and gave them hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit.

Mitchell is also suspected of agreeing to be a getaway driver but didn’t show up, leaving the men on foot early on June 6.

Hundreds of law enforcement officials are searching the area around the prison for inmates David Sweat and Richard Matt.

(AP)

[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) expressed his disappointment with the NYS Assembly’s passage of the East Ramapo Monitor Bill this afternoon, which he called “a sad day for Democracy.” Hikind delivered an impassioned speech to his colleagues from the floor of the Assembly, prior to casting his vote, where he made it clear that the bill is unprecedented and is unfairly targeting Hassidic Jews rather than addressing the real issue—the community’s lack of sufficient funding for its public schools.

“In my 32 years in office, I’ve never heard anyone suggest getting rid of a school board’s rights,” Hikind said on the Assembly floor. “If this school board has done anything wrong, anything illegal, then bring in the Attorney General. But that’s not the issue.

“This school district lacks funds. They are being cheated. So instead of addressing that, the people who are unhappy because certain non-mandated programs have been eliminated have made this a racial issue. They talk about the Jews and ‘the block vote.’

“The East Ramapo Monitor Bill establishes a very dangerous precedent. A monitor who has the ability to overturn decisions made by a duly elected board is clearly unfair. If an appointed monitor can make decisions for the East Ramapo school district, then other appointed monitors can do the same in other districts. Where does it end? There will be no point in even electing a school board anymore—those elected members will become a board of advisers as the appointed monitor becomes a dictator. We eliminate the democratic process.”

Hikind vowed to continue working in the legislature, where the State Senate has not yet voted, to prevent the clearly biased bill from becoming law.

“With G-d’s help, I’m confident that this will not become law,” he said.

Note: The Assembly vote was 80 to 56 (76 were required to pass).

(YWN Desk – NYC)

A New York City jury convicted a Queens man in the 2012 shooting of an NYPD sergeant.

John Thomas was found guilty Thursday of first-degree attempted murder of a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer and related offenses.

The 27-year-old faces up to 40 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced.

Prosecutors say 47-year-old Craig Bier was on patrol when he approached Thomas in August 2012. Thomas fled and exchanged gunfire with Bier when the officer caught up with him. Bier was shot in both legs.

Thomas will be sentenced on July 29.

(AP)

Squads of law enforcement officers are heading out for a seventh day of searching for two murderers who escaped from a maximum-security prison in northern New York.

Armed officers in body armor started boarding New York state prison system buses soon after dawn Friday in the village of Dannemora, where David Sweat and Richard Matt used power tools to cut their way out of their neighboring cells last weekend. They remain at large.

The hundreds of state, federal and local officers conducting the search spent Thursday slogging through a swampy patch of woods just east of Dannemora after investigators had received tips that the convicts were in the area. Tracking dogs had picked up the scent in the morning.

State Route 374, the main road leading into Dannemora, remains closed for a second day, as does the local school district.

The rugged northern New York terrain being searched for two escaped murderers presents major challenges to anyone who ventures into the Adirondack woods.

Experts say if escapees David Sweat and Richard Matt are in the wooded, swampy area just east of Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, they’re enduring two of the region’s warm-weather nuisances: swarms of biting insects.

Curt Stager, a biology professor at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks, tells the Press-Republican of Plattsburgh that black flies come out during the day while mosquitoes are just as prevalent at night.

The hundreds of law enforcement officers attempting to catch the escapees are encountering the same conditions as they slog through streams and swamps in the search area, located near the Adirondack Park’s northeastern boundary about 20 miles south of the Canadian border.

(AP)

The NYPD says a suspect menaced a police officer with a knife as officers approached three men stripping a car in Brooklyn.

Police say it happened shortly after 4 a.m. Friday on East 19th Street between Glenwood Road and Foster Avenue.

Three officers, including a sergeant, were on patrol in the area when they came upon the trio.

Police say as they approached to arrest them one of the suspects pulled out a knife and threatened the sergeant.

The sergeant discharged his firearm once but it wasn’t clear if anyone was struck. Two of the suspects, including the one with the knife, got away. The third suspect was placed under arrest.

The officers were not injured.

The knife was recovered.

(AP)

The New York Senate has voted to create a “terrorist registry” that would contain the names of anyone convicted of terrorism.

The idea is based on the longstanding sex offender registry, which allows the public to view the names, addresses and photos of those convicted of certain sex crimes.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Thomas Croci, says overseas terrorism as well as a growing number of incidents in the U.S. shows the need for the registry. He says the list would help local police and allow a local resident to know if “the person living next door is a convicted terrorist.”

The measure passed the Senate on Wednesday. It now moves to the Assembly.

The measure would also require convicted terrorists to register with local authorities when they move.

(AP)

A federal judge imposed the maximum possible prison sentences Thursday on two Pakistani-born brothers who admitted trying to pull off a terrorist bomb attack against New York City landmarks and later assaulted two deputy U.S. marshals while in custody.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom compared the plot, which never got past the planning stages, to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings in which the two attackers used commonplace pressure cookers. In the Florida case, evidence shows the younger brother, 22-year-old Raees Alam Qazi, researched how to make bombs on the Internet using readily available items such as Christmas tree lights and chemicals.

“You are a terrorist. Evil in nature and evil in your deeds,” Bloom said to Raees Qazi. “You chose to engage in conduct that can only be described as evil and reprehensible.”

The judge sentenced Raees Qazi to 35 years in prison while his brother, 32-year-old Sheheryar Alam Qazi, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. Both sentences were three years above those recommended by prosecutors and defense attorneys in a March plea deal.

Sheheryar Qazi got a lesser sentence because his main role was to back his brother financially as he sought to actively plan an attack, according to court documents. Bloom said evidence shows Sheheryar Qazi was fully aware of and supported the plot.

“Your assistance allowed your brother to continue with his evil plan,” the judge said, adding that the FBI investigation and arrests “prevented what could have been a tragic loss of many lives.”

The two brothers, who lived in Broward County, Florida, were arrested there in November 2012 after Raees Qazi returned from New York by bus following a target scouting mission and possibly an aborted attack, authorities said.

Neither man said anything beyond simple one-word answers to the judge’s questions, and Sheheryar Qazi spent the hearing busily writing on a yellow legal pad with his head bowed. Their attorneys also declined comment in court and outside.

According to a factual statement signed by both brothers, Raees Qazi tried to join Islamic extremists in 2011 in Afghanistan while visiting Pakistan. When that failed, he opted to become a “lone wolf” who would plot ways of attacking the U.S. from within.

Raees Qazi told a confidential FBI informant in one meeting that he had been in contact with al-Qaida operatives and added, “the leaders know what they are talking about so when they call on Muslims in the West to stay in the West, there’s a reason for that,” according to the statement.

Both brothers were avid followers of lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical Muslim cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011, according to the statement. They were also recorded in FBI wiretaps and listening devices expressing support for al-Qaida and its former leader, Osama bin Laden, and took tips from the terror group’s Inspire magazine.

Earlier in the case, defense lawyers sought access to information about the brothers collected under the once-secret National Security Agency surveillance program revealed by one of its contractors, Edward Snowden. Prosecutors eventually agreed they had a duty to turn over the information but did not do so because they decided not to use it as evidence.

As the case was progressing, on April 6, 2014, the brothers used a ruse to distract two deputy marshals while being escorted in the Miami court complex. The marshals suffered bruises and other injuries in the attack, during which the brothers yelled “Allahu Akbar,” which is Arabic for “God is Great.”

(AP)

Another man is facing charges in New York City that he was involved in a plot to recruit U.S. fighters to join the Islamic State group.

Akmal Zakirov becomes the fifth defendant charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn. The name of his attorney wasn’t immediately available Thursday.

Prosecutors accused Zakirov of plotting to pay for one of his co-defendants to fly to the Middle East to join the Islamic State group. The man was intercepted at Kennedy airport in February before he could board a flight to Turkey.

The other men have already pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. All are emigrants from the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

THE FOLLOWING IS VIA BREAKING911.COM:

Earlier today, a second indictment was unsealed charging Akmal Zakirov with attempt and conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a designated foreign terrorist organization. The defendant, who is charged with four Brooklyn residents whose arrests have previously been announced, is scheduled to be arraigned at 2:00 p.m. today.

As alleged in the indictment and other court filings, the investigation began last year when Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, one of Zakirov’s co-defendants, came to the attention of law enforcement. Juraboev posted on an Uzbek-language website that propagates ISIL’s ideology his offer to engage in an act of martyrdom on U.S. soil on behalf of ISIL, such as killing the President of the United States. The investigation subsequently revealed that Juraboev and another co-defendant, Akhror Saidakhmetov, planned to travel to Turkey and then to Syria for the purpose of waging violent jihad on behalf of ISIL. Saidakhmetov was arrested on February 25, 2015, at John F. Kennedy International Airport where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey. Juraboev previously purchased a plane ticket to travel from New York to Istanbul and was scheduled to leave the United States in March 2015.

Zakirov, co-defendant Abror Habibov, and others, allegedly helped to fund Saidakhmetov’s efforts to join ISIL. Specifically, Zakirov and Habibov discussed providing their own money to purchase Saidakhmetov’s plane ticket and to cover his travel expenses, and they also solicited money for that purpose from other individuals. In the week leading up to Saidakhmetov’s scheduled departure, several individuals transferred a total of approximately $2,400 into Zakirov’s personal bank account, which funds were intended to facilitate Saidakhmetov’s travel to join ISIL.

“Zakirov is the fifth to be charged as part of the network of individuals alleged to have conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIL,” stated Acting United States Attorney Currie. “Our efforts to investigate terrorist support groups are ongoing — we are committed to disrupting and deterring those who seek to support ISIL, whether by lending themselves or their funds to ISIL’s cause.” Mr. Currie extended his grateful appreciation to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which comprises a large number of federal, state, and local agencies from the region, and to the FBI Norfolk Division.

“Any material support of a terrorist organization not only threatens our national security but violates federal law. In this case, Zakirov is alleged to have been part of a team committed to financing terrorist efforts. Fortunately, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force identified and stopped such activity. We will continue to work with our partners to uphold our mission and proactively protect the people of the U.S., both home and abroad, through these types of intelligence-based investigations,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Rodriguez.

“This indictment illustrates the NYPD’s ongoing commitment to stem the efforts of organizations such as ISIL who do not hesitate to promote their violent ideology both here and abroad,” said Police Commissioner Bratton. “I would like to commend the efforts of the Joint Terrorism Task Force investigators, along with our many law enforcement partners, who continue to thwart the efforts of those who would advance a terrorist agenda.”

“Providing material support to terrorist organizations that seek to do us harm represents a clear and present danger to the United States,” said HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Parmer. “Today’s indictment should serve as a warning to all those who attempt to assist ISIL and other terrorist organizations that no stone will go unturned to identify, apprehend, and have them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

If convicted, Zakirov faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s National Security & Cybercrime Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander A. Solomon, Douglas M. Pravda, and Peter W. Baldwin are in charge of the prosecution, with assistance provided by Trial Attorney Danya Atiyeh of the Justice Department’s Counterterrorism Section.

(AP)