Kazakh National Pleads Guilty to Planning to Join Daesh in Syria

A 21-year-old New York City resident and citizen of Kazakhstan has pleaded guilty to charges that he planned to either join the Daesh terrorist group in Syria or shoot police officers in United States, the US Department of Justice said in a press release.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Akhror Saidakhmetov, a resident of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, was arrested in February 2015 while attempting to board a plane for Turkey, the release noted. At sentencing, Saidakhmetov faces up to 15 years in prison.

“Akhror Saidakhmetov admitted that he conspired to provide material support to ISIL [Daesh] and that he was prepared to commit violence overseas or here in the United States,” Acting Assistant US Attorney General McCord stated in the release on Thursday.

During the fall and winter of 2014-2015, Saidakhmetov and codefendant Abdurasul Juraboev made plans to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of the terrorist group, the release explained.

The release cited one recorded conversation, in which Saidakhmetov remarked that if he was unable to travel to Syria, he would purchase a machine gun and shoot police officers in the United States.

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