The Justice Department indicted two Virginia men Wednesday for lying and obstructing justice in relation to a case of an individual who attempted to join ISIS in 2014.
According to the DOJ, the owners of a Fairfax gaming center were charged by a federal grand jury with conspiracy to obstruct justice and make false statements involving international terrorism, obstruction of justice and making false statements involving international terrorism.
“Michael Queen, 28, of Woodbridge, and Soufian Amri, 32, of Falls Church, lied to FBI agents to prevent them from learning about and investigating their friend Haris Qamar’s support of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Queen and Amri knew that Qamar had attempted to travel overseas to join ISIL in 2014, yet they lied to and misled the FBI by saying that the only person they knew who might travel to join ISIL was a ‘tall, thin, Indian’ individual,” DOJ said in a press statement.
It continued, “Queen later told Qamar that Queen and Amri gave the FBI the name of a Hindu individual as someone who might support ISIL. Queen told Qamar, “I’m never going to throw a Muslim underneath the bus to try to do the right thing.”
Qamar was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison on February 17 for attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Queen and Amri could each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted.
The charges were released a day after Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced in a speech Tuesday at George Washington University that the FBI has “open terrorist investigations in all 50 states” and at least 37 “ISIS-linked plots to attack our country” and “36 homegrown terrorist cases in 18 states” in the last four years.
“We don’t know their intentions,” Kelly said. “We don’t know why they’re here or why they’re coming. We are completely blind to what they’re capable of.”