NEW YORK
Munther Omar Saleh, 22, of Queens, New York, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years in prison for conspiring and attempting to help ISIS, according to officials.
He also assaulted and conspired to assault federal officers. Saleh pleads guilty on Feb. 10, 2017 to all counts in the indictment, officials indicated.
“Inspired by ISIS’s violent and hateful ideology, the defendant conspired with others to use a pressure-cooker bomb in a terrorist attack in New York and attempted to attack members of law enforcement who were conducting surveillance of him,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Edward O’Callaghan. “Today’s sentence is but one example of our resolve to bring to justice homegrown violent extremists who plot and attempt attacks on innocent people, including law enforcement agents, in the U.S. in the name of foreign terrorist organizations.”
“Munther Omar Saleh and his co-conspirators conducted attacks on members of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to keep our city safe,” stated U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue of New York. “Saleh’s sentence will not only incapacitate the defendant for a significant period of time, but should also serve as a deterrent to those who contemplate waging violent jihad in New York City at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization. This Office, and our partners on the Joint Terrorism Task Force, will never relent in our efforts to hold terrorists accountable for their cowardly acts, including attacks on those who protect us.”
As alleged in the indictment and in other court filings, these are the facts and circumstances surrounding this case:
Saleh and codefendant Fareed Mumuni conspired to support ISIS by helping their coconspirators attempt to travel to ISIS-controlled territory in order to join ISIS, and by plotting to use a pressure-cooker bomb to conduct a terrorist attack in the New York metropolitan area on behalf of ISIS.
On June 13, 2015, Saleh and another coconspirator were arrested in Queens after they attempted to attack members of law enforcement by charging at a federal officer who was performing physical surveillance of Saleh.
Saleh and the coconspirator were armed with knives. Following his arrest, Saleh admitted to agents that he had discussed with Mumuni physically attacking the law-enforcement officers who were surveilling Mumuni.
On June 17, 2015, during the execution of a search warrant at his residence in Staten Island, Mumuni was arrested after he repeatedly stabbed an FBI agent in the torso with a large kitchen knife. The knife did not penetrate the agent’s protective body armor, and he sustained minor injuries.