The Rochester man accused of recruiting people to join the Islamic State of Iraq plead not guilty in federal court on Thursday.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, operator of MoJoe's Pizza and Chicken on North Clinton Avenue, was arraigned federal court this morning on 7 criminal counts.
"The first three relate to the attempt to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organization, and in this case, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” says Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Harvey. “The last four accounts relate to what is alleged in court paperwork that would be a plot to murder returning members of the United States military and the possession of unregistered firearms and silencers."
Harvey says Elfgeeh is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison. Each count carries a minimum prison sentence of 10 years, except for one, which has a mandatory minimum of 30 years.
"The fact that we sought an indictment from a grand jury and obtained it, we feel like we can prove the charges," says Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett Harvey.
The court proceeding took nearly an hour because the indictment was translated in Arabic.
Elfgeeh asked the federal prosecution to identify the three individuals court documents allege that he tried to recruit for the terrorist groups. That request was denied.
Harvey says there’s a large amount of evidence that has yet to be translated from Arabic into English before being handed over to the defense. He says that will happen on a rolling basis.
Elfgeeh is expected back in court on October 1st.