21-year-old Adam Dandach of Orange County has been indicted on several charges after allegedly attempting to travel to Syria in 2014 with the stated intention of joining the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS, also known as ISIL or Daesh).
“Dandach told FBI agents that he was traveling to Syria for the purpose of pledging his alliance and assistance to ISIL,” reads a U.S. Department of Justice release. Court documents show that Dandach, also known as “Fadi Fadi Dandach,” told authorities that, “he believed the killings of American soldiers are justified.”
The indictment asserts that Dandach “knowingly attempted to provide material support and resources, namely himself, to work under the direction and control of ISIL, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qa’ida in Iraq, ISIS, and the Islamic State.” In the documents, ISIL is noted as a U.S. State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization.
Dandach was initially charged with lying on a passport application last July–a charge to which he pled not guilty at the time. He allegedly did so in order to avoid having a relative that possessed his original passport stop him in his effort to travel from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport to Istanbul on his way to Syria.
Dandach is also accused in the indictment of instructing a third party to take action in order to delete Dandach’s Internet post history on a particular website in an attempt to obstruct the investigation of his activities.
Counts in the indictment include one of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, two counts of making a false statement on a passport application obtained in order to facilitate international terrorism, and one count of obstruction of justice for the attempt to eliminate records evidence after his July arrest, according to the Department of Justice.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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