US: Pakistani physician sentenced to 18 years in jail for making an attempt to hitch ISIS

On Friday, August 25, a US courtroom sentenced a Pakistani man named Muhammad Masood to 18 years in jail and subsequent supervised launch after he was convicted of making an attempt to offer materials help to the phobia outfit Islamic Stae of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS). The Pakistani convict had pleaded responsible on August 16 final yr.

According to a press launch issued by the US Justice Department, Muhammad Masood (31), a licensed medical physician in Pakistan had beneath an H-1B visa labored as a analysis coordinator at a medical clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Masood labored on the Mayo Clinic beforehand however was working at a analysis clinic in Rochester when he was arrested in 2020.

Masood used an encrypted messaging service to allow his journey abroad to hitch the Islamic terrorist organisation ISIS between January and March 2020. Masood expressed his want to hitch the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) and declared his allegiance or “Bayat” to the proscribed terrorist organisation and its chief in lots of his statements.

Muhammad Masood had additionally expressed his aspiration to hold out ‘lone wolf’ terrorist assaults within the United States. Reportedly, Masood was additionally prepared to battle and work as a fight medic for the Islamic terrorist outfit within the Middle East.

The inquiry into Masood’s actions started in January 2020, when investigators found he had on an encrypted social media community requested for help on “making hijra”. According to an affidavit submitted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the time period is usually utilized in Islamic State circles to indicate journey to territory managed by ISIS for the objective of “violent jihad.”

The Pakistani physician turned Jihadi had deliberate to achieve Syria through the route of Chicago, Illinois, to Amman, Jordan and from there on to Syria. Masood had on February 21, 2020, purchased aircraft tickets accordingly. However, Muhammad Masood needed to change his journey plans as Jordan closed its borders for incoming flights within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Following this, Masood determined to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to satisfy with somebody he believed might assist him go through cargo ship to ISIS territory.

Masood travelled from Rochester to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) on March 19, 2020, to board a aircraft heading for Los Angeles, California. Masood checked in for his flight at MSP. However, the Pakistani Jihadi was apprehended there by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.

He was caught as a result of the individuals he was speaking to about his plans to hitch ISIS have been truly authorities informants.

Notably, Masood’s lawyer, Jordan Kushner, claimed that Masood suffered from “mental illness”. Masood’s lawyer instructed The New York Times on Friday that the sentence was “extremely harsh” contemplating his shopper’s historical past of psychological sickness.

Kushner, in courtroom, had referred to a psychiatrist’s report, which discovered that Masood’s acts must be seen “not as an act of devotion to violent extremism and the aims of ISIS, but as a result of his mental illness and multiple stressors.”