Brooklyn Man Pleads Guilty To Helping ISIS: U.S. Attorney's Office

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A 21-year-old from Midwood, Brooklyn pled guilty on Thursday to providing material support to ISIS, the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of New York's office announced. Akhror Saidakhmetov, who was born in Kazakhstan and is a legal permanent resident of Brooklyn, was arrested on Feb. 25, 2015 at JFK International Airport when he was about to board a flight to Turkey to travel to Syria and fight on behalf of ISIS, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. He faces up to 15 years in prison and being removed from the United States to Kazakhstan.

Saidakhmetov and 24-year-old Abdurasul Juraboev, also a permanent legal resident of Brooklyn, were arrested on the same day, police reported. Juraboev pled guilty in August 2015 to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. He has not yet been sentenced.

The two men worked at the mall kiosks of 30-year-old Abror Habibov in the fall and winter of 2014, court documents show, CNN reported. Habibov was arrested the same day as the other two in Jacksonville, Florida for helping to organize and finance ISIS. He sold repair cell phones and kitchen devices at his kiosks, according to CNN.

Saidakhmetov wrote a post online in August 2014 referencing a pro-ISIS video that showed people pledging allegiance to the extremist group and mass executions of Iraqi forces by ISIS, according to court filings. His post said, "Allohu Akbar I was very happy after reading this, my eyes 2 joyful so much victory."

Evidence shows Saidakhmetov conspired with Juraboev to travel to Syria in the winter of 2014. Police intercepted phone conversations in which Saidakhmetov told Juraboev that they could shoot several FBI officers with guns they could purchase legally in America, CNN reported.

According to the police, Saidakhmetov said to Juraboev on the phone: "It is legal in America to carry a gun. We will go and purchase one handgun ... then go and shoot one police officer. Boom. ... Then, we will take his gun, bullets and bulletproof vest ... then, we will do the same with a couple of others. Then we will go to the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI people."

According to authorities, the two men also talked about planting a bomb in Coney Island and attacking President Obama, the New York Times reported in 2015.

"Thanks to the efforts of FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, we have prevented two local residents – Saidakhmetov and his codefendant Abdurasul Juraboev – from becoming foreign fighters in Syria or attacking victims here in the United States," said U.S. Attorney Robert Capers.

"This guilty plea is another example of the collaborative work of the members of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force and the prosecutors of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York," said NYPD Police Commissioner James O'Neill.

Photo of Saidakhmetov via New York Legal Defense