Brooklyn man gets 15 years in Isis terror case
A courtroom sketch shows defendants Akhror Saidakhmetov, fourth from left, and Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, fourth from right, in Brooklyn federal court at their arraignment on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. They are charged with plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State and wage war against the United States. Credit: Christine Cornell
A federal judge in Brooklyn on Wednesday imposed a 15-year prison sentence on Akhror Saidakhmetov, a Kazakh man who tried to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State and said he would attack police and FBI agents in the United States if his travel plan was thwarted.
Saidakhmetov, 22, of Brooklyn, a former mall kiosk worker who was one of six alleged ISIS supporters charged in related cases, was arrested at Kennedy Airport in 2015 with a ticket to Turkey after he and friends discussed jihadi violence online and with an informant.
“It is legal in America to carry a gun,” he allegedly said in one conversation. “We will go and purchase one handgun . . . then go and shoot one police officer. Boom . . . Then we will take his gun, bullets and a 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.”
Defense lawyer Adam Perlmutter urged U.S. District Judge William Kuntz to impose a 6-year sentence, arguing in court papers that the informant played a key role in eliciting incriminating statements and helping Saidakhmetov get travel papers after his mother confiscated his passport.
He said he was “disappointed” with the outcome. “The government isn’t willing to embrace their level of responsibility in bringing about this whole situation and the court was not prepared to hold them accountable,” Perlmutter said.
Acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde said in a statement that Saidakhmetov had been “held accountable.”
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