New York, an Albanian-American accused of supporting Islamic State

American authorities announced on Friday the arrest of Albanian-American Erald Alimehmet on the grounds of efforts to support the terrorist Islamic State organisation.

Erald Alimehmeti, 33, was sent before federal judge Stewart D on Friday. Aaron, who ordered his ban.

FBI official in New York, James E. Dennehy said after the arrest that “Erald Alimehmeti has made efforts on the internet to recruit and train individuals, who he believed had similar views and repeatedly distributed a number of guidelines on producing explosives for use in terrorist attacks. ”

In a press release issued Friday by the South York District Prosecutor's Office, Damian Williams, it is said that Erald Alimehmet, with American and Albanian citizenship, had settled in the Bronx and in 2014 had moved to Albania. He has been arrested and imprisoned twice by Albanian authorities, serving prison sentences in 2015-2019 and 2020-2022 for weapons and physical assault on other people.

According to the prosecution, in the 1920s and 2020s, he regularly posted messages and videos on social media in support of the Islamic State, including praise messages for some leading figures in this group. The documents handed down to the court are also cited as posing a video in the social media, where he says: the Islamic “State in Africa is killing crusaders, French and American special forces. ”

Two charges have been filed against 33-year-old Tirana, one for an attempt to provide material support to the Islamic State, for which the maximum sentence is 20 years in prison and the other for distributing information about explosives, destructive means and weapons of mass destruction, for which the maximum sentence is 20 years in prison.

Federal prosecutor Damian Williams thanked authorities in Albania and those in Australia for their valuable help in investigating this case. / VOA