Sentencing date set for Phoenix man behind ISIS-inspired terror attack
May 6, 2016, 7:50 AM
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem (MCSO Photo)
(MCSO Photo)
PHOENIX — A July 29 sentencing date has been set for a Phoenix-area man found guilty in an ISIS-inspired plan to attack a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem was convicted on five counts in federal court in March.
He had been charged with conspiracy for providing the guns used in a planned attack in Garland, Texas on May 3, 2015.
The verdict marked the second time anyone was tried in the U.S. on charges related to the terrorist group.
Jurors agreed with prosecutors that Kareem hosted two friends — also from the Valley — at his Phoenix home to discuss plans for the attack in the Dallas suburb.
Prosecutors said Kareem, who owns a moving company, also went target-shooting in the Arizona desert with Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi.
Smpson and Soofi were roommates at a north Phoenix apartment complex.
Police fatally shot the two men in the assault.
Kareem testified that he had no knowledge beforehand about the attack and insisted that he didn’t know about the event until after Simpson and Soofi were killed.
The prosecution also said the three men had schemed to blow up University of Phoenix Stadium, site of the 2015 the Super Bowl. The plan fell apart.
The trial began mid-February.
Kareem, also known as Decarus Thomas, was arrested in June 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
