A Pakistani doctor working on an H-1B visa in the United States was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seeking to provide material support to the terrorist organization ISIS and carry out ‘lone wolf’ strikes in the United States.
According to a Department of Justice statement, Muhammad Masood, 31, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
In August of last year, he pled guilty and was sentenced before Senior Judge Paul A. Magnuson.
Masood was a qualified and licensed medical doctor in Pakistan and previously worked as a research coordinator at a medical clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on an H-1B visa, according to court filings.
Masood utilized an encrypted messaging service to assist his travel overseas to join a terrorist organization between January and March 2020.
Masood expressed his desire to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) and declared his allegiance to the proscribed terrorist group and its leader on many occasions.
Masood has also stated a desire to carry out ‘lone wolf’ terrorist attacks in the United States. Masood bought a plane ticket from Chicago, Illinois, to Amman, Jordan, and then planned to proceed to Syria. Masood’s vacation plans were altered in March of that year when Jordan closed its borders to incoming travel owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
Masood then agreed to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to meet with someone he believed would help him go by cargo ship to an ISIS territory. He flew from Rochester to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) to catch a flight to Los Angeles. Masood signed in for his flight at MSP and was later detained by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
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