Albanian pleads guilty in US on terror charges
April 13, 2012
Agron Hasbajrami, 27, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, at the time of his arrest, is now facing up to 15 years in a US prison, the Department of Justice said, adding he has agreed to be deported after serving his sentence.
Hasbajrami wired more than $1,000 to terror groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and began emailing with a Pakistani militant.
Hasbajrami wrote that it was difficult to get donations from fellow Muslims when they discovered that the money was intended for jihad and that he wished to travel abroad to "marry with the girls in paradise."
The Justice Department said in its statement that this was taken to mean he wanted to die as a martyr.
Hasbajrami was arrested in September 2011 at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York while attempting to board a flight to Turkey.
According to court documents, Hasbajrami is a permanent resident of the United States, where he had lived since 2008. (AFP)
