By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
Authorities’ initial case against a Virginia man accused of writing on Facebook about blowing up the D.C. subway, fizzled somewhat.
Awais Yoiunis was sentenced Wednesday in Alexandria, Va. to time served — three months — after federal authorities scaled back the terrorism allegations, the Washington Post’s Dana Hedgpeth reported. U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III also ordered Yoiunis to serve two years of supervised release.
Younis, 25, of Arlington County, ended up pleading guilty to making threats via Interstate communication against another person on the Internet, the Post reported. He had written on Facebook about putting pipe bombs in subway cars and wrote threatening remarks to someone.
Federal authorities had searched his home, but found no materials that could have been used in such a plot, the Post reported.
Authorities had alleged in court documents that an informant contacted the New Orleans FBI on Nov. 28 and said during a chat on Facebook that Younis discussed building pipe bombs and detonating them on the subway cars.
Once the FBI began looking into the matter, the defendant made threats against the informant and her father during a Facebook chat.
The Post reported that Younis’s attorney, Frank Salvato said his client had “no intention of ever harming anyone.”
“The court and the government acknowledged that this was an isolated heated exchange with no actual or intended harm to anyone,” Salvato said.
“The time-served sentence and a short period of supervision are more than enough in this case, and my client is looking forward to resuming his normal life,” Salvato said.
id federal agents became aware of Younis in November after a Facebook user in Louisiana tipped them off to discussions with Younis, who was using the name Sundullah “Sunny” Ghilzai online. The person who had exchanged messages online with Younis on Facebook again went to the FBI in December and described how agitated and angry Younis seemed in an online chat.
“You are sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong into something bigger than you and I,” Younis wrote. “that is the problem with Americans they cant leave well enough alone until something happends then they sit there wondering why we dropped the twin towers like a bad habit hahaha.”
