TWO
CHICAGO RESIDENTS CHARGED WITH TERRORISM VIOLATIONS
TOLEDO - Gregory
A. White, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, today announced
that a federal grand jury in Cleveland returned a new indictment charging
two of the defendants in the pending Toledo terrorism case, Zubair Ahmed
and his cousin, Khaleel Ahmed, both of Chicago, Illinois, with a single
count of conspiring to commit terrorist acts against Americans overseas.
Zubair Ahmed, age 28, and his cousin, Khaleel Ahmed, age 27, are both
U.S. citizens, and reside in the Chicago, Illinois, area.
The new indictment
charges Zubair Ahmed and Khaleel Ahmed with conspiring, together and with
others, to "kill, kidnap or maim persons outside of the United States,
to include U.S. armed forces personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan,"
in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 956(a)(1).
The new indictment
alleges a conspiracy from "at least as early as April 2004 through
in or about February 2007." Some, but not all, of the defendants'
activity alleged in the new indictment is also alleged in the conspiracy
charged in Count One of the pending Toledo indictment in the case of United
States v. Mohammad Zaki Amawi, et al. That case is currently set for trial
in March 2008.
If convicted, each
defendant's sentence will be determined by the Court after review of factors
unique to this case, including the defendant's prior criminal record,
if any, the defendant's role in the offense and the characteristics of
the violation. In all cases, the sentence will not exceed the statutory
maximum and, in most cases, it will be less than the maximum.
The maximum statutory
penalties upon conviction for the charged offense is as follows:
18 U.S.C. §
956(a)(1): 35 years imprisonment (if conspiracy to maim) or life imprisonment
(if conspiracy to kill);
In addition, a $250,000 fine could be imposed, as well as a period of
supervised release of up to 5 years following imprisonment.
This case is being
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas E. Getz and Justin E. Herdman
of the National Security Unit of the United States Attorney's Office in
Cleveland, and AUSA Gregg N. Sofer of the United States Attorney's Office
in Austin, Texas (formerly of the Department of Justice, Counterterrorism
Section) with assistance from Trial Attorneys Jerome J. Teresinski and
David I. Miller of the Counterterrorism Section of the Justice Department's
National Security Division. The new indictment follows an investigation
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago, Illinois, Toledo, Ohio,
and Atlanta, Georgia.
An indictment is
only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to
a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt
beyond a reasonable doubt.
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