An American youth, of Yemeni origins, confessed to belonging to the ISIS terrorist group and now faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Akram Musleh had been under surveillance by the FBI for five years, when he was still 15 years, after it was alerted to his pro-ISIS activity on the internet.
The Indianapolis Star reported Friday that the 20-year-old pleaded guilty before federal court on Wednesday of trying to join ISIS.
Musleh was born and raised in Brownsburg, Indiana.
His involvement with the terror group began on social media in 2013, according to court documents, when he posted videos of terrorist leaders. FBI agents spoke with Musleh at the time, hoping to prevent him from heading down the extremist path. The teen told investigators he posted those videos “simply to understand Islam's history.”
In 2016, Musleh read a news article about an Indiana Department of Homeland Security list of 8,500 potential terror targets in the state.
Around that time, he had researched explosive materials online. He also was seen by an FBI agent shopping for pressure cookers at a Wal-Mart near Brownsburg, Indiana. Pressure cookers are used as a component in some improvised explosive devices.
A Google Plus account connected to a YouTube account, highlighted by investigators as belonging to Musleh, showed posts and comments on YouTube videos, at least one of which included a reference to ISIS.
In 2013, he commented on a video that referenced Adolf Hitler, writing: “Gays are going to hell.”
On another video shared on his Google Plus account in 2014, he wrote: “Someone Should Of Shot All Those Cops And Then Burn There [sic] Bodies.”
