Bolingbrook Man Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Join ISIS

A Bolingbrook man accused of trying to join the Islamic State pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization.

Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 20, faces up to five years in prison, a sentence agreed upon by federal prosecutors only if Khan continues to cooperate with law enforcement, according to the Chicago Tribune.

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Kahn was arrested in early October 2014 at O’Hare International Airport as he attempted to board a flight to Vienna, Austria with his younger siblings.

Prosecutors alleged that Khan’s 17-year-old sister and 16-year-old brother had accompanied him to the airport and ”wanted to wage violent jihad with the Islamic state.” The teens were questioned by the FBI, but not charged.

Court documents allege that a search of Khan’s Bolingbrook home yielded notebooks outlining his plans to support the terrorist group. The teen also allegedly told FBI agents that he met a person online who was to provide him with an ISIS contact when he arrived in Istbanbul. According to a complaint filed against Khan in federal court, a letter from the teen to his parents urged them not to tell authorities.

Among documents found during a search of Khan’s Bolingbrook home was a page in a notebook allegedly saying, in Arabic, “Islamic State in Iraq and Levant. Here to stay. We are the lions of war ...,” according to the complaint filed against the teen. Another page with drawing of what appeared to be an armed fighter with the ISL flag behind him and the words, “Come to jihad,” prosecutors allege.

A letter allegedly left for Khan’s parents told them “FIRST and FOREMOST, PLEASE MAKE SURE NOT TO TELL THE AUTHORITIES,” and stated that he had an “obligation to ‘migrate’ to the ‘Islamic state,’” and that he was upset that he was obligated to pay taxes to the U.S. “that would be used to kill his ’Muslim brothers and sisters,’” the complaint alleges.

Thomas Anthony Durkin, Khan’s attorney, said that “Khan’s desire to join a caliphate, while perhaps misguided, amounted to an expression of his religious freedom,” according to the Tribune.