Kazakh Officials Visit Alleged ISIL Supporter in US Prison - Attorney

Metropolitan Correctional Cenre (MCC)According to criminal defense attorney Adam Perlmutter, officials from Kazakhstan’s Consulate General in New York City visited Kazakh citizen Akhror Saidakhmetov in a Manhattan prison.

Officials from Kazakhstan’s Consulate General in New York City visited Kazakh citizen Akhror Saidakhmetov in a Manhattan prison, criminal defense attorney Adam Perlmutter told Sputnik.

“We have been in touch with the Consulate General. They have expressed obvious concern with the client's welfare and wellbeing, including visiting with him in the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan where he is being held,” Perlmutter said on Monday.

US authorities have accused Saidakhmetov, a Brooklyn, New York resident, of having conspired to support the Islamic State together with Uzbek national Abdurasul Juraboev.

The court case against the suspects is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 11.

Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement in February, offering to assist the United States in the investigation of Saidakhmetov.

In October 2011, Saidakhmetov left for Uzbekistan and never returned to Kazakhstan, the Kazakh ministry said, adding that neither he nor any of his relatives ever approached the Consulate General of Kazakhstan in New York City.

US authorities charged Saidakhmetov and Juraboev, as well as another Uzbek citizen Abror Habibov in February on charges of conspiring to support the Islamic State. The ISIL is a militant jihadist group that has seized territories in Iraq and Syria ad declared a caliphate there.

Source: sputniknews.com