An alleged ISIS supporter came to Ontario with a study permit and pleaded not guilty to the terrorism charge in New York due to accusation that he planned to conduct a shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn.
Public records show Muhammad Shahzeb Khan was arraigned in a federal court in Manhattan on Thursday after being extradited to the United States from a Canadian prison earlier this week.
Prosecutors said Khan, a 20-year-old Pakistani citizen, was charged:
-
Attempts to provide material support and resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations.
-
Try to carry out terrorism that transcends national borders.
If convicted, he will face life in prison. His attorneys Andrew Dalack and Marne Lenox declined to comment on the case.
Khan was arrested last September by an armed RCMP officer near a gas station in Ormstown, Queens, about 20 kilometers from the New York state border. Prosecutors said he had arranged a human smuggler to help him cross the United States.
Khan “plans to use automatic weapons to kill as many members of the Jewish community as possible in support of ISIS,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement.
A FBI investigation shows that Khan allegedly intends to be on or around the first anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“If we succeed, then this will be the biggest attack on American land since 9/11,” Khan allegedly wrote on the encrypted chat platform.
Khan is still in custody and plans to return to the U.S. District Court in September. A trial date has not been set.
CBC News previously reported His social media campaign – four months after how to move to the Toronto area under the alias “Shahzeb Jadoon” first caught the attention of FBI informants.
New court documents show that the FBI has tracked online the mass murder of Jews in Mississauga, Ontario, where Jews murdered Jews in New York State. Khan was arrested near the border of Quebec in September.
Immigration records released by the Canadian Parliamentary Committee show that Khan obtained research permit in April 2023 and landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport in June of the following year.
The Federal Immigration Security Assessment has not yet established “any risk indicator”, so Khan’s documents have not been further screened through the Intelligence Service CSI or the Canadian Border Service.
According to evidence presented by the Quebec High Court as part of the extradition process, Khan had asked to be accomplices to obtain hunting knives, camouflage shirts, tactical vests, art-style rifles and “900 rounds of ammunition and 10 magazines”.
Khan allegedly: “Brother…we are going to go to New York City to massacre them.”
Around the same time, a self-proclaimed immigration consultant in Mississauga, Ontario said Khan had been claiming refugee status in Canada based on his sexual orientation.
“He said he was gay,” Fazal Qadeer Tell CBC In an interview last year.
Khan expressed his agreement to the Quebec court in February to conduct an extradition trial in New York.
“We will prosecute this person to the maximum extent of the law,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said this week.
