A 23-year-old man was found guilty on Wednesday by a federal jury in Atlanta, Georgia, of supporting terror groups by sending videos of US landmarks abroad and plotting “violent jihad” in Europe.
Ehsanul Islam Sadequee could face up to 60 years in prison after he was convicted on four counts of providing material support to terrorism.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 15, along with his friend, Syed Haris Ahmed, who was convicted after a bench trial in June.
During the trial, prosecutors said Sadequee and his co-conspirators developed relationships over the Internet and maintained contact online, along with other “supporters of violent jihad” in the US, Canada, the UK, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.
The young man, prosecutors said, traveled to Canada to meet other militants, including members of the “Toronto 18” al-Qaeda-inspired group, and to Bangladesh, where he sent an email in 2001 when he was only 15 seeking to join the Taliban to fight US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Among the contacts to whom Sadequee sent his videos of potential targets in Washington — including the US Capitol, the World Bank and a fuel tank farm — was Aabid Hussein Khan, a facilitator for the Pakistani militant groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
He also sent video clips to Younis Tsouli, who dispersed propaganda and recruited for al-Qaeda in Iraq. Both Tsouli, 26, and Khan, 24, have been convicted on terror-related charges in Britain and are behind bars there.
Sadequee, who was first arrested in April 2006 in Bangladesh at the age of 20, represented himself during the trial.
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