LOC23:33
20:33 GMT
WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (KUNA) -- An indictment was unsealed Wednesday charging Mirsad Kandic, 36, a legal permanent resident of the US, with counts of conspiracy with the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Kandic, who left the country in 2013, is charged with "one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources" to IS in Iraq and Syria, resulting in death, and five counts of "providing and attempting to provide material support and resources to (IS)," including one count resulting in death, said the Department of Justice (DoJ).
It indicated that the defendant was extradited to the US from Bosnia and Herzegovina on Tuesday and is to be arraigned at a federal courthouse in New York. If convicted, Kandic faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
"As part of his support for (IS), the defendant traveled overseas and, while abroad, recruited and facilitated the travel of foreign fighters to join the terrorist organization," said Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Dana Boente.
She affirmed that the National Security Division "will continue to use all its tools to disrupt the flow of foreign fighters and bring to justice those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations."
As alleged in the indictment and other court filings, prior to November 2013, while living in New York, "Kandic expressed the desire to travel overseas to engage in "jihad" against US military forces to obtain martyrdom," where he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey in December 2013 and joined IS and from there he "recruited individuals from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere, to travel to (IS)-controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and serve as foreign fighters."
Kandic also worked "to further (IS)'s media and propaganda operations," and "set up and used over 100 Twitter accounts to provide updates about (IS) attacks and territorial gains, which announcements were close in time to when the events occurred."
Acting US Attorney Bridget Rohde for the Eastern District of New York stressed "together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to prosecute (IS) members, as well as other terrorists, to the fullest extent of the law". (end)
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