WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A 23-year-old Texas man has been indicted for providing support to a terror organisation after travelling to Syria to join the Daesh group, the US Justice Department said.
Omer Kuzu, a US citizen born in Dallas, Texas, was indicted by a federal jury in that city for conspiring to provide material support to Daesh.
Kuzu appeared before a judge for the first time on Thursday to face charges that could send him to prison for up to 20 years, the department said in a statement.
According to the Justice Department, Kuzu was detained by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), recently turned over to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and returned to Texas.
“The United States continues to demonstrate its commitment to holding accountable those who have left this country in order to join and support Daesh,” assistant attorney general John Demers said.
“Kuzu travelled overseas and joined Daesh as part of his conspiracy with others to provide material support to the foreign terrorist organisation.
“We hope countries around the world, including our European allies and partners, will likewise take responsibility for their own citizens who travelled to support Daesh,” Demers said.
According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Thursday, Kuzu and his brother allegedly travelled from Houston, Texas, to Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2014 to join Daesh.
Kuzu told agents that he ended up in Mosul, Iraq, where he received training from Daesh instructors.
He then went back to Syria, where he was paid US$125 a month to repair communications equipment for frontline fighters.
As Kurdish forces advanced in early 2019, he fled and was captured with other Daesh members by the SDF.
The announcement of Kuzu’s indictment comes two weeks after the Justice Department announced charges against a naturalised American who was a Daesh sniper.
Kazakhstan-born Ruslan Maratovich Asainov was charged in New York with providing material support for a terror group after being captured in Syria and repatriated to the United States.
Asainov, 43, fought for Daesh in Syria for five years before he was captured by the SDF and handed over to US custody.
Several other US citizens have been repatriated, including women married to Daesh fighters, a man who taught English to Daesh followers, a former university student who became an informant for the US government shortly after joining the group, and a man who was captured before he joined in any combat.
They are among thousands of foreign fighters and their family members captured last year in the US-led campaign to eradicate the group from its strongholds in Iraq and Syria.
Washington has pressured allies to take back their own citizens who joined Daesh and place them on trial at home, but Britain, France and others have so far declined to do so. — NNN-AGENCIES
