Pakistani doctor living in US jailed 18 years for attempt to support ISIS

A Pakistani doctor living in the United States was sentenced to 18 years in jail for attempting to provide material support to ISIS. A statement by the US Justice Department said, a Rochester man has been sentenced to 216 months in prison, equivalent to 18 years, followed by five years of supervised release for attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. 

According to court documents, 31-year-old Muhammad Masood is a licensed doctor in Pakistan and was formerly employed as a research coordinator at a medical clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, under an H-1B visa.

 

The statement said, between January 2020 and March 2020,



Masood used an encrypted messaging application to facilitate his travel overseas to join a terrorist organization. Masood made multiple statements about his desire to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), and he pledged his allegiance to the designated terrorist organization and its leader. Masood also expressed his desire to conduct lone-wolf terrorist attacks in the United States.

 

Last year, on 16th of August, Masood pleaded guilty to the charges that he was booked for attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated the case.