USA v. Shehadeh, Abdel Hameed
Staten Island, NY

Taliban

[EDNY] Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, a former Staten Island resident living in Hawaii, has been charged with lying about a failed attempt to join the Taliban in Pakistan. Several weeks after Shehadeh's botched attempt to join the Taliban in Pakistan, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army at a recruitment station in Times Square. Shehadeh's application was denied when it was discovered that he had concealed his trip to Pakistan. In March 2013, Shehadeh was convicted of making false statements in a matter involving international terrorism. In April 2020, Shehadeh wrote to a Brooklyn federal judge that he was a changed man who feared he might die from a COVID-19 infection. But federal prosecutors in a memorandum filed on May 8, 2020, noted that only six inmates at the Lewis Run, Pa., jail had tested positive for COVID-19, and that none of those cases were currently "active." They also argued that Shehaded's pulmonary embolism did not put him at higher risk if he were to contract the virus.