A man previously charged with supporting the Islamic State in an alleged plot to kill a U.S. soldier has now been charged with attempted murder, federal officials announced Tuesday.
A federal grand jury in Maryland recently issued the attempted murder charge and a weapons charge against Nelash Das, 25, in addition to a count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS that was handed up last year.
Das is a citizen of Bangladesh but was admitted to the United States in 1995 and was a legal permanent resident at the time of his arrest, court documents state.
Federal authorities accuse Das of supporting terrorist activity by planning to kill a member of the U.S. military who was also a special agent with the FBI, the government said.
Das plotted the attack with a man who he would later learn was a confidential FBI source, according to an affidavit filed by federal officials. The two men got as far as the fake address of the targeted soldier’s home before federal agents moved on him and arrested him.
After his arrest, Das told The Washington Post through jailhouse phone calls that he was entrapped in a terror plot planned by the FBI designed to set him up.
Das faces a sentence of up to life in prison, if convicted.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Lynh Bui
{Matzav.com}
