A Queens man accused of having al Qaeda ties and playing a role in a 2009 suicide bomb plot on the New York subway system pleaded not guilty to new charges Friday.

Adis Medunjanin, 26 years old, was silent during the short proceeding, in which he wore blue and orange prison garb. His attorney, Robert Gottlieb, entered the plea in federal court in Brooklyn before Judge Raymond Dearie.

Mr. Medunjanin, a naturalized American citizen from Bosnia, was arrested in January, after the government accused him of helping to plot rush-hour bombings in September 2009.

While Mr. Medunjanin appears to be headed to trial, two other men accused in the plot—Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, Flushing High School classmates of Mr. Medunjanin—have already pleaded guilty and have cooperated with the government. Another defendant, al Qaeda operative Adnan Shukrijumah, also has been charged, but remains at large.

Mr. Medunjanin was in court Friday to respond to the additional terrorism charges, which include conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and providing material support to al Qaeda, among other things.

In the new indictment, prosecutors said Mr. Medunjanin traveled to Pakistan with Mr. Zazi and Mr. Ahmedzay to get military-style training from al Qaeda. The indictment alleges that Mr. Medunjanin and the others were recruited by Mr. Shukrijumah.

The new indictment also accused Mr. Medunjanin, a Queens College graduate and part-time building superintendent, of intentionally crashing his car into another driver in hopes of killing himself and others back in January while he was under surveillance.

“The government is free to characterize it,” Mr. Gottlieb said of the government’s allegation in a news conference outside the courthouse. He said the details of the crash would be clarified during the trial.

Mr. Gottlieb refused to go into any specifics about Mr. Medunjanin’s relationship with the others involved in the plot or the government’s evidence. “What’s in the indictment has been made public. He has said that he is not guilty of the criminal charges, and we fully intend to proceed to trial,” he said.

(Source: WSJ)