Have you seen this Second Suspect Pleads Not Guilty to NYC Terror Charges

NYC

Second Suspect Pleads Not Guilty to NYC Terror Charges

VOA News 09 January 2010

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this courtroom sketch, defense attorney Robert Gottlieb, left, is seated next to his client, defendant Adis Medunjanin, at the federal courthouse in New York City, Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010. Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty to charges that he flew to Pakistan to get military training from al-Qaida.

The second of two men arrested on Friday in  connection with an alleged terrorism plot has pleaded not guilty to the charges in a New York federal court.

Bosnian-born Adis Medunjanin entered the plea in a brief court appearance Saturday. The 25-year-old man is facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and receiving military training from a foreign terrorist organization.

On Friday, Afghan-born driver Zarein Ahmedzay  pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to U.S. federal agents.

The complaint against Ahmedzay alleges he did not name all the places he visited in Afghanistan and Pakistan while traveling to those countries in 2008 and 2009.  He is also charged with lying to the FBI for denying that he  received "military-type training" in Pakistan.

Investigators have linked the suspects to a Colorado man, Afghan-born Najibullah Zazi, arrested last year on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in New York City.  Zazi has pleaded not guilty.

When Zazi was arrested last September, investigators said they knew the identities of at least three of his associates, but did not release information about them.

Prosecutors have accused Zazi of conspiring to use homemade bombs against unspecified targets in the United States.  Law enforcement officials have said the plot may have involved New York City's mass transit system. 

They allege Zazi spent more than a year plotting the attack with co-conspirators and that he received bomb-making instructions in Pakistan in 2008. 

The U.S. government also says he bought components to build improvised explosive devices and traveled to New York City on September 10, 2009 to move forward with his plans. 

Federal officials say Ahmedzay and Medunjanin had been under surveillance for months.  Their homes in the New York City borough of Queens were among those searched last September during a probe into the alleged terror plot.

A lawyer for Medunjanin denies his client was involved in any terror plot.

Some information for this report provided by AP.

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