Albanian gets U.S. jail term for trying to join Pakistan militants
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 14 August 2015 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Albanian gets U.S. jail term for trying to join Pakistan militants, 14 August 2015, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/55ee96b715.html [accessed 26 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
August 14, 2015
A 31-year-old Albanian, arrested for trying to travel from New York to Pakistan to join a terrorist group, has been sentenced to 16 years in a U.S. jail.
Agron Hasbajrami pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to support terrorists, nearly four years after he was arrested preparing to fly to Pakistan in September 2011.
Prosecutors said he would be deported upon release. Hasbajrami moved to the United States in 2008 and was a legal resident in Brooklyn, New York before his arrest.
In 2011, Hasbajrami wired more than $1,000 to "support terrorist activities" in Pakistan and Afghanistan before trying to travel to Pakistan's tribal belt to join jihadists, prosecutors said.
He had expressed his desire to die as a martyr in an email to an unnamed individual in Pakistan, who claimed to be a member of an armed group that killed U.S. soldiers and kidnapped westerners.
U.S. agents found a note reading, "Do not wait for invasion, the time is martyrdom time," during a search of his Brooklyn home.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
