Illinois man accused of trying to join Islamic State may face trial
By Nikitta Foston
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday said he wanted to set a trial date for a Chicago-area man accused of trying to provide support to Islamic State militants, as prosecutors and the defense failed to reach a plea deal in the case.
Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 20, of the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook is charged with trying to provide material support to Islamic State militants after he tried to travel with his two younger siblings to the Middle East to join the group.
Khan's defense lawyer and federal prosecutors have been trying to reach a plea deal, but were not ready to present one to the judge at a status hearing in federal court in downtown Chicago on Tuesday.
"I'm inclined to set a trial date. I don't want to blow up negotiations but that would be my preference," U.S. District Judge John Tharp said at the brief hearing.
Tharp set a new status hearing for Oct. 1 and asked both sides to "come with a real plea agreement."
Khan's lawyer, Thomas Durkin, told the judge that he had just received the plea agreement from the prosecutors on Monday and that he had a lot of reservations, particularly regarding supervised release conditions.
Khan was 19 at the time of his arrest in October 2014 at O'Hare International Airport as he tried to board a plane to Vienna en route to Istanbul with his two younger siblings, who were then 17 and 16. He has been in detention ever since.
The Islamic State militant group has seized a third of Iraq and swathes of Syria and declared a modern caliphate. A U.S.-led coalition has spent billions training and equipping Iraqi forces to take on the militants and conducting air strikes against them in Syria and Iraq.
The Khan siblings left behind notebooks and letters indicating that they wanted to join Islamic State. Their parents have said they had no idea of what their children were up to and that the three were radicalized by online propaganda.
A handful of Islamic State recruits have been prosecuted in the United States.
(This story has been refiled to remove extra word "by" in byline)
(Writing by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Eric Walsh)
