

A courtroom sketch showing the arraignment of the three other men charged in this case. (Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)

Federal authorities announced this week that they are charging a man from Brooklyn with trying to help the Islamic State, adding him to a list of three other New York men arrested earlier this year and accused of supporting the militant group.

The men arrested in February had discussed harming President Obama and carrying out attacks inside the United States, officials said when they were charged. One of the men was arrested at an airport while trying to leave the country to meet with members of the group, while another man was planning to follow him there in March, officials said.

This week, Dilkhayot Kasimov, 26, became the fourth man from Brooklyn charged in this case. Kasimov is also accused of trying to help the Islamic State’s efforts in Syria, joining Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, Akhror Saidakhmetov and Abror Habibov, who were all charged in February.

The criminal complaint says that Saidakhmetov, 19, a Kazakh citizen, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport while trying to fly to Turkey so he could head to the border with Syria. According to the federal government, Kasimov worked with Habibov to collect more than $1,600 from various people for Saidakhmetov’s travel and other expenses.

In a new wrinkle, Kasimov is accused of delivering this money to Saidakhmetov at the airport not long before federal authorities arrested the man hoping to board a flight and join the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS. Investigators also say they found messages showing that Kasimov was encouraging people to travel to Syria to help the group.

“Terrorist support networks like the one this defendant was involved in offer critical funding, travel logistics, and encouragement to persons seeking to join ISIL and other foreign terrorist organizations,” Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney overseeing Brooklyn as well as the Obama administration’s nominee to be the next attorney general, said in a statement. “We will remain vigilant in our efforts to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and to disrupt and dismantle the networks, here and abroad, that support them.”

The original criminal complaint unsealed in February stated that days before Saidakhmetov’s attempted flight, Habibov had called three other unidentified people and discussed the travel plans as well as how to pay for them. The government also said that Juraboev intended to follow Saidakhmetov to Syria a short time later.

Kasimov is charged alongside the other men with “knowingly and intentionally” trying to provide support to the Islamic State, according to a superseding indictment filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He will be arraigned Wednesday in New York. He could face up to 30 years in prison if he is convicted.