New York: A New York City man, arrested for links to a terror plot, pleaded not guilty on Saturday to charges that he received training from al Qaeda in Pakistan and that he was involved in conspiracy to commit murder.
Addis Medunjanin, 24, from Queens was arrested on Friday along with 25-year-old Zarein Ahmedzay as part of an ongoing terror investigation.
Ahmedzay, who has been indicted for making false statements to FBI, appeared before a federal judge in US District Court in Brooklyn, where he pleaded not guilty early on Saturday.
These arrests are linked with the terror plot that was allegedly being planned by Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado shuttle driver who was arrested and indicted, last year.
The 24-year-old suspect from Afghanistan has been accused of planning to blow up key areas in New York City.
Both arrested men are believed to have accompanied Zazi to an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008.
Prosecutors have accused Ahmedzay of not providing accurate information about all the places he visited during this trip and about what he did there.
Medunjanin`s apartment was one of the four searched by the Feds during the Zazi investigation in September, 2009.
His attorney Robert Gottlieb said his client had done nothing wrong.
Last year, the FBI found that Zazi had purchased large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and acetone from beauty supply stores in Denver over three months.
Then, he tried to mix up explosives in a hotel room and drove to New York to carry out an attack, according to FBI.
When the FBI searched his vehicle in New York they found a laptop computer with bomb-making instructions.
Medunjanin, the Bosnian immigrant, tried to flee when he saw agents near his home and he crashed his car at Whitestone, Queens, sustaining minor injuries. He was taken into custody after being treated at a local hospital.
The two arrested men, according to US authorities, lived in the same Queens neighbourhood where Zazi once lived. Zazi has already pleaded not guilty.
PTI
