Parveg Ahmed, 22, of Queens, New York, went to Saudi Arabia in order to “celebrate an Islamic religious holiday” but was deported back to the U.S. after he was caught trying to cross the border into Syria in an attempt to join ISIS.
Ahmed, a U.S. citizen, was also apprehended for posting about his support for the Islamic Extremist group on Facebook. After a search warrant was acquired for his personal computer, additional materials about his attempts to join were discovered.
“… the defendant had viewed or listened to recordings of radical Islamic clerics Anwar al-Awlaki and Abdullah el-Faisal,” said the DOJ. “Al-Awlaki was a U.S.-born cleric and prominent leader of the foreign terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed on or about Sept. 30, 2011. El-Faisal, a Jamaican-born cleric, was found guilty in the United Kingdom of, among other things, solicitation to commit murder, for preaching to followers to kill individuals, including Americans, because he deemed them to be enemies of Islam.”
Ahmed faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison after decisions are made by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Craig R. Heeren and Margaret E. Lee of the Eastern District of New York with assistance from Trial Attorney Joshua Champagne of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.