NEW YORK
A New York man was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for attempting to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization.
Parveg Ahmed, 27, of Queens, plead guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization in June 2018.
According to court documents, Ahmed is a U.S. citizen who traveled to Saudi Arabia in June 2017, purportedly to celebrate an Islamic religious holiday.
Upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed attempted to travel to Syria to join ISIS. Ahmed was apprehended in a country bordering Syria during his attempted travel to ISIS-controlled territory.
Previously, Ahmed had repeatedly expressed support on social media for ISIS and individuals who supported the foreign terrorist organization’s mission of violent extremism.
On July 17, 2017, law enforcement agents obtained a search warrant for his personal computer, according to officials.
They learned that he listened to recordings of radical Islamic clerics Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born cleric and prominent leader of the foreign terrorist organization al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Anwar al-Awlaki was killed on or about Sept. 30, 2011, and Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric was found guilty in the United Kingdom of solicitation to murder and preaching to followers to kill individuals.
This included Americans because he deemed them to be enemies of Islam.
Ahmed was deported to the United States on Aug. 28, 2017, where he was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The subsequent review of electronic devices found in Ahmed’s possession when he was detained attempting to travel to Syria also revealed:
Messages explaining that the defendant planned to join ISIS in Syria to wage violent jihad and express farewell to the defendant’s family members.
Specifically, review of his devices revealed a message he composed, but had not yet sent, stating, “[W]e have made it to Dawlatul Islam [ISIS] in Syria. In sha Allah [God willing] we will join the Jihad very soon and in Sha Allah [God willing] we will then join the ranks of the Shuhuda [martyrs]. The West has invaded the land of the Muslims and is constantly attacking it.”
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig R. Heeren and Meredith A. Arfa for the Eastern District of New York prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance provided by the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.