Two Californians Arrested for Supporting Islamic State Plead Not Guilty

Two men residing in Orange County, California, and accused of providing material support to Islamic State radicals operating in Iraq and Syria, have pleaded not guilty in a federal US court, The Los Angeles Times reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Muhanad Badawi and Nader Elhuzayel, both 24, are due back in court on July 6 and are scheduled to go to trial on July 28, the newspaper said on Monday after the men pleaded not guilty at the US District Court for the Central District of California.

According to FBI, US special agents have been monitoring the men since January, 2013 over their pro-ISIL comments on social media. They were arrested last month after Elhuzayel was intercepted at Los Angeles International Airport and were accused of trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State.

The two suspects were charged in a criminal complaint filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California in May.

ISIL, a radical Sunni group also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has seized vast areas in Iraq and Syria.

ISIL affiliates also operate in North Africa, Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Islamic State recruits new members from different parts of the world, including from Europe and the United States. The extremists use social networks as a tool to recruit young teenage fighters.

According to recent estimates by US intelligence officials, some 20,000 foreign fighters including 4,000 people from Western Europe have joined ISIL in the last three years.

The militants are notorious for their brutality, including beheadings of Western journalists.