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Pakistani doctor who sought to support Isis gets 18 years in US prison
- Muhammad Masood pleaded guilty a year ago in Minnesota to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation
- Prosecutors also said the former Mayo Clinic researcher expressed a desire to carry out ‘lone wolf’ attacks in the US
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A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic research coordinator who sought to join Islamic State (Isis) to fight in Syria and expressed interest in carrying out attacks on US soil was sentenced on Friday to 18 years in prison.
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Muhammad Masood, 31, pleaded guilty a year ago to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
Prosecutors said he attempted unsuccessfully to travel from the US to Syria via Jordan in 2020, then agreed to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to meet up with someone he thought would help him travel by cargo ship to Isis territory.
But Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents arrested him at Minneapolis airport on March 19, 2020, after he checked in for his flight.
US District Judge Paul Magnuson handed down his sentence on Friday in St Paul.
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Prosecutors said Masood was in the US on a work visa. They alleged that starting in January 2020, he made several statements to paid informants - whom he believed were Isis members - pledging his allegiance to the group and its leader.
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