A Brooklyn architect admitted today that he tried to travel overseas and join a jihadist terror group in one of Pakistan’s far-flung tribal regions.
Agron Hasbajrami, 28, an Albanian citizen legally residing in the US, was lured away from his New York City architecture career after becoming radicalized on Internet web sites preaching holy war.
Hasbajrami pleaded guilty today in Brooklyn federal court to one count of providing material support to terrorists and now faces up to 15 years in prison, under the terms of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Hasbajrami was arrested in September at JFK airport as he tried to board a flight to Turkey while carrying with him a tent, boots and cold-weather gear, officials said.
In his passport was a freshly-issued Iranian visa.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors say Hasbajrami was headed eventually to Pakistan’s western frontier to seek training from terror groups operating along its border with Afghanistan.
They also charged him with sending at least $1,000 to a jihadist group to support their insurgency goals.
Hasbajrami told Judge John Gleeson that he was intent on meeting up with fellow travelers.
“I tried to help a group of people who I believed were engaged in fighting in Pakistan,” he said.
Hasbajrami also said that he had “attempted to help the group by providing money and myself in support of their efforts.”
His defense attorney, Steve Zissou, declined to elaborate on why Hasbajrami became disenchanted with a promising architecture career in New York and decided instead to embrace an insurgency in southwest Asia.
Following his Sept. 6, 2011 arrest, investigators from a joint FBI-NYPD probe later searched Hasbajrami’s residence, where they discovered a note that read: “Do not wait for invasion, the time is martyrdom time,” officials said.
(Source: NY Post)