Overview

• U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon sentenced Awais Chudhary, 25, to 108 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release after his guilty plea to attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
• In 2019, Chudhary pledged allegiance to ISIS’s then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and scoped targets including pedestrian bridges over the Grand Central Parkway and the Flushing Bay Promenade in Queens, recording videos of the areas.
• Prosecutors said he sought guidance from people he believed were ISIS supporters, shared a propaganda diagram showing where to stab victims, and ordered a tactical knife, mask, gloves, and camera straps to film the attack.
• Agents arrested him as he tried to retrieve the ordered items from an online retailer’s locker in Queens, and authorities said the planned attack was stopped before anyone was harmed.
• Before the plot, Chudhary helped translate and disseminate ISIS propaganda to English-speaking audiences; at sentencing, officials credited the DOJ, EDNY, FBI, and NYPD for the investigation and prosecution.