NEW YORK, April 29: A 19-year-old US citizen of Bangladeshi descent charged with lying to FBI agents was arrested without bail on Friday after a prosecutor told a judge that he had travelled to Washington last year to make ‘casing videos’ of the Capitol, the World Bank and a fuel storage depot.
Prosecutors levelled the new allegations against Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed, also a US citizen of Pakistani Descent, while challenging a New York City judge’s earlier decision to place Mr Sadequee under house arrest at his mother’s residence in Roswell, Georgia, on a $250,000 bail.
District Judge Sandra Townes reversed that ruling and ordered Mr Sadequee, 19, held without bail after citing a pre-trial report detailing the defendant’s ties to Bangladesh, where he lived for the several months recently and got maried.
“I feel that the risk of flight is just too great,” Judge Townes said.
Mr Sadequee, who grew up near Atlanta, is accused of lying to authorities amid an FBI terrorism investigation. He was jailed in New York on Saturday following extradition from Bangladesh.
An FBI agent’s affidavit accused Mr Sadequee and Haris Ahmed, a 21-year-old Georgia Tech student of Pakistan origin, of meeting three other men undder FBI investigation during a trip to Toronto in March last year.
The men allegedly discussed carrying out attacks against oil refineries and military bases and planned to travel to Pakistan for military training at a terrorist camp.
