Chicago Man Is Indicted on Charge of Trying to Aid ISIS

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/10/us/chicago-man-is-indicted-on-charge-of-trying-to-aid-isis.html

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A 19-year-old man from the Chicago suburbs has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he tried to provide support to a terrorist group in his effort to travel to Syria with his younger sister and brother.

Federal prosecutors said that the man, Mohammed Hamzah Khan, was one of several disaffected young Muslims in the West who had become radical in recent years and who had tried to go to the Middle East to fight alongside the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. The indictment late Thursday was announced on Friday.

The group, waging war against the governments of both Syria and Iraq, has been listed by the American government as a terrorist organization. Western officials are concerned that alienated men and women will receive military training and then return to commit terrorism in their home countries, a worry that hit home this week in Europe.

In France on Friday, the police killed two French brothers who had been sought in the slayings of 12 people at a Paris newspaper. One of the brothers had received military training from Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate during a trip to that country in 2011.

In Chicago, Thomas A. Durkin, Mr. Khan’s lawyer, said Friday that while he had expected the indictment, the government had no convincing evidence that his client had wanted to either join or to aid the Islamic State.

“This is a wrongheaded charge, which I think is politically motivated — used to justify the hysteria over ISIS, which will only become more intense after Paris,” Mr. Durkin said, referring to the attack at the newspaper office. “The evidence points to some very strong religious beliefs. I don’t think there is anything that shows material support.”

Mr. Khan lived with his parents in Bolingbrook, Ill. He was arrested with his siblings in October while trying to board a flight to Turkey at O’Hare International Airport. From there, the authorities said, they had planned to travel to Syria.

The single count indictment accuses him of trying to provide material support to the Islamic State, which has seized control of territory in Syria and Iraq and established a caliphate.

Mr. Durkin said Mr. Khan had sought to travel to Syria simply to experience life in a strict, religious environment. “He had a devout belief in Islam and wanted to live in a caliphate,” Mr. Durkin said.

Mr. Khan’s 17-year-old sister and 16-year old brother have not been charged, the authorities said.

In most prosecutions in which people are charged with seeking to provide material support to a terrorist organization, they have tried to funnel money, weapons or supplies. But in Mr. Khan’s case, the charge is based on the teenager’s apparent intent to join the group.

If convicted, Mr. Khan faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is expected to be arraigned within the next 10 days, Mr. Durkin said.