Members of arrested US jihadi group visited Pakistan in 2008
WASHINGTON: The US Federal authorities are looking for an eighth alleged member of a North Carolina group, who ,according to US prosecutors , traveled to Pakistan in October 2008 for plotting "violent jihad" overseas, prosecutors said Tuesday.
However name of the wanted person, stated to be a US citizen has been redacted from the Court papers.
Earlier seven other men were arrested on charges of supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad. Those who have been arrested were identified as Daniel Patrick Boyd, 39, Boyd’s sons, Dylan Boyd, 22, also known as "Mohammed," Zakariya Boyd, 20, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, a U.S.-born citizen; Hysen Sherifi, identified as a native of Kosovo who is a legal permanent resident of the United States; and Hiyad Yaghi and Anes Subasic, both naturalized U.S. citizens.
The US officials maintained that in 1991, Boyd and his brother were convicted of bank robbery, by an anti terrorist court, in Pakistan. When the sentence was imposed, Boyd shouted: "This isn’t an Islamic court. It’s a court of infidels!" They were each sentenced to have a foot and a hand cut off for the robbery, but the sentence was later overturned by a higher court.
Among other acts, the indictment alleges that Daniel Boyd traveled to Gaza in March 2006 and attempted to enter Palestine in order to introduce his son to individuals who also believed that violent jihad was a personal religious obligation. Later, in October 2006, defendant Ziyad Yaghi allegedly departed the United States for Jordan to engage in violent jihad.
In June 2007, Daniel Boyd and several other defendants departed the United States for Israel in an effort to engage in violent jihad, but ultimately returned to the United States after failing in their efforts. According to the indictment, after his return to the United States, Daniel Boyd made false statements twice to federal officials about who he had planned to meet on his trip to Israel.
Sabrina Boyd, the wife of Daniel Patrick Boyd and the mother of the two younger Boyds, said the charges had not been substantiated. She said, in a statement that "We are decent people who care about other human beings,
Sabrina Boyd also said in the statement that her husband had fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan with the "full backing" of the U.S. government. Boyd went on to say in an interview with CNN that her family had traveled to the Middle East for peaceful reasons, including praying for a son who had died in a car crash.
"We all had agreed to go the Holy Land and pray for our son," Boyd said. "It would be a positive action and it would help console us and it would be in a place where we felt, Islamically, we could do the most good for our departed beloved."