The Queens man with ties to an alleged al Qaeda associate conspired to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan after receiving military training from the terror network, a federal prosecutor said today.
“[Adis Medunjanin] traveled with others from New York to Pakistan with the intent to kill U.S. service members in Afghanistan,” said Assistant US Attorney James Loonam, during a hearing today in front of Brooklyn Federal Judge Raymond Dearie.
Medunjanin, 25, who attended the same Queens high school with other terror suspect Najibullah Zazi, was indicted Jan. 9 and charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving al Qaeda training.
Zazi allegedly drove to New York from Denver with the intent to detonate weapons of mass destruction in the city. It is believed that the two traveled together to Pakistan.
Loonam told the judge today that the two cases were related and that the two would likely be charged together in future in a superseding indictment.
The Bosnian national, who is now a U.S. citizen, then led police on a high-speed chase that ended in collision on the Whitestone Expressway.
During the chase, Medunjanin allegedly dialed 911 and shouted in Arabic, “We love death more than you love life.” Medunjanin, who said nothing during the short noon hearing today, struck a tall, pale figure with a long scruffy beard and wearing an orange t-shirt and blue prison uniform.
The terror suspect’s lawyer, Robert C. Gottleib, will seek to throw out that statement and others that his client made to the feds after he was taken into custody.
Prosecutors say that Medunjanin, a building superintendent from Flushing, waived his right to counsel and his right to a speedy indictment, but lawyer said that any statement made outside his presence would be unconstitutional.
Another Queens man, Zarein Ahmedzay, 24, who also attended high school with Zazi and Medunjanin, was charged with lying to the Feds about his knowledge of his friends’ trip to Pakistan.