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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Brooklyn Men Arrested on ISIL-Support Charges

BROOKLYN (CN) - Three Brooklyn residents will appear before federal judges Wednesday on charges of conspiring to support the terrorist group ISIL.

The complaint unsealed today targets three defendants - Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, Akhror Saidakhmetov and Abror Habibov - for alleged attempt and conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom will preside over the initial appearances of Juraboev and Saidakhmetov in Brooklyn, while Habibov is scheduled to appear in before a Jacksonville, Fla., federal judge later today.

Prosecutors say investigators caught wind of Juraboev, whom they describe as a 24-year-old Uzbeki national living in Brooklyn, because of posts he made on an Uzbek-language website that propagates ISIL's ideology.

In August 2014, Juraboev allegedly wrote a post on that site offering "to kill the president of the United States if ordered to do so by ISIL."

"The investigation subsequently revealed that Juraboev and Saidakhmetov devised a plan to travel to Turkey and then to Syria for the purpose of waging jihad on behalf of ISIL," according to a statement from prosecutors.

Authorities allegedly apprehended Saidakhmetov, a 19-year-old Kazakh national living in Brooklyn, "early this morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, Turkey."

Prosecutors say Saidakhmetov had claimed he would commit a terrorist act in the United States if unable to travel abroad to join ISIL. Specifically, the teenager allegedly vowed "to buy a machine gun and shoot police officers and FBI agents if thwarted in his plan to join ISIL in Syria."

Habibov, another Uzbekistan national living in Brooklyn, "helped fund Saidakhmetov's efforts to join ISIL," according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Juraboev "had previously purchased a plane ticket to travel from New York to Istanbul and was scheduled to leave the United States next month," the statement says.

The charges against each defendant carry maximum 15-year sentences in prison.

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