Amer Sinan Alhaggagi, 22, of Oakland, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
According to the indictment, Alhaggagi, 22, of Oakland, California, is alleged to have knowingly attempted to provide services and personnel to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), between July and November of 2016.
The indictment alleges that the services Alhaggagi attempted to provide included opening social media accounts for the use, benefit and promotion of ISIS, and that the personnel he provided was himself.
The indictment also alleges three counts of identity theft offenses – two counts of identity theft and one count of aggravated identity theft. With respect to those charges, an affidavit previously filed by an agent of the FBI in connection with a criminal complaint in the same matter alleged that Alhaggagi had used a stolen credit card to make $4,932 in fraudulent online purchases from a clothing company.
Alhaggagi’s attorney, Mary McNamara, told the Mercury News organization: “Amer is not anti-American and does not support ISIS or any other terrorist organization.”
“He is completely nonviolent, and he took no actions to harm anyone,” McNamara said. “The evidence we have suggests these charges are based on internet chat conversations that he had with a number of unknown people. Amer is a very young and naïve man, and it appears he allowed himself to be drawn into conversations that he should have been far more suspicious of.”
Alhaggagi’s arraignment has not yet been scheduled.
