Uzbek citizen charged in New York over Islamic State plot

An Uzbek citizen has become the fifth person indicted along with four previously charged men from Brooklyn, New York, in an alleged plot to provide support to Islamic State militants, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

New York: An Uzbek citizen has become the fifth person indicted along with four previously charged men from Brooklyn, New York, in an alleged plot to provide support to Islamic State militants, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

Akmal Zakirov, 29, was charged with two counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group and attempting to provide such support.

The defendant is scheduled to be arraigned later on Thursday in US federal court in Brooklyn. Contact information for Zakirov`s lawyer was not immediately available.

Thursday`s charges relate to a plot detailed earlier this year in charges against Brooklyn residents Dilkhayot Kasimov, Akhror Saidakhmetov, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev and Abror Habibov.

Prosecutors have said Saidakhmetov, a native of Kazakhstan, and Juraboev, also from Uzbekistan, planned to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of the Islamic State.

They said Zakirov and Habibov, also of Uzbekistan, discussed providing their own money to cover Saidakhmetov`s travel expenses and solicited others to provide funds.

Prosecutors said several people transferred $2,400 into Zakirov`s bank account in the eight days prior to Saidakhmetov`s scheduled departure, with the money intended to fund his travel.

If convicted, Zakirov faces up to 30 years in prison. His co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.

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