Almadaoji was arrested on Wednesday before he was able to travel to Kazakhstan from the Columbus airport. He was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release.
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Officials say Almadaoji was planning to be smuggled into Afghanistan to join an affiliate of ISIS, ISIS Khorasan. He communicated with an FBI source through an Internet messaging service, and he allegedly told the source he was hoping to train in methods used in terrorism.
He worked on “some aspect of this plan” for months, officials said.
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Almadaoji first appeared in court on Thursday.
“I can only say that my client is a 19-year-old citizen of the United States who is presumed by our law to be innocent of this charge, and that we intend to vigorously defend his case,” his attorney, James Fleisher, said by email last week.
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