UPDATE: Kingstowne Resident Pleads 'Not Guilty' in ISIL Case: Accused of Providing Support to Terrorist Group

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Mohamad Jamal Khweis pleaded "not guilty" Friday to charges he provided material support to ISIL, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Khweis will go on trial April 3, 2017, the spokesman said.

A federal grand jury Wednesday returned an indictment charging Khweis with Providing Material Support to ISIL (along with other terrorism related charges), according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Khweis was initially charged by criminal complaint on June 9.

Khweis, a 2007 graduate of Edison High School in Fairfax County, is scheduled for arraignment Friday in front of U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady in Alexandria, where he'll enter a plea to the charges.

Khweis, being held without bail in Virginia, faces federal charges -- alleging he provided material support to terrorists and agreed to be a suicide bomber -- that could put him away for 20 years.

Khweis’ attorney, John Zwerling, has told radio station WTOP that his client hopes to avoid jail time, saying Khweis “would like to try to discourage other people from making the same mistake he did.”

The reported ISIS fighter who surrendered in March, walked into an area controlled by the Kurdish Peshmerga near the Turkish border, according to news reports. Peshmerga are the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Khweis started researching ISIL in December, sold his car and flew to London and made contact with ISIL, traveled to Turkey and Syria, NBC reported.

The Associated Press spoke to Khweis' father, who lives in the Kingstowne area of Fairfax County. Outside the Khweis home, near Edison High School, heated words were exchanged, after Khweis surrendered, between his father and reporters gathered outside and he reportedly pushed and hit cameras and turned a water hose on them, according to a report by WUSA-9. Police arrived to try to calm the situation. The father said he had spoken with the FBI, trying to find out what was going on with his son.

"That's him. I cannot believe it," his uncle, Kamal Khweis,told NBC News. "He doesn't even speak Arabic. ISIS? I cannot believe this."

Kamal Khweis told NBC News that his nephew told his family he was going to Europe for vacation and when they last heard from him, he said he was in Greece. Khweis defected from the group, walking up to a checkpoint in the Iraqi town of Sinjar, CBS News reported. The Associated Press reported that he had a large amount of cash with him.

PHOTO: Muhammad Jamal Khweis, 26, of Fairfax County, booking photo courtesy of Fairfax County Police