Opening statements begin in Islamic State trial in Phoenix
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PHOENIX - Prosecutors opened their case Wednesday against a man they portrayed as an Islamic State follower and the driving force behind a plot to attack an anti-Islam cartoon contest last year, calling him the leader of a team "set on mass murder."
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, a 44-year-old owner of a moving company, is believed to be the first person to stand trial in the US on charges related to Islamic State.
He is charged with helping plan an attack last year at a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas in which two associates were killed after they showed up at the event with semiautomatic rifles, bulletproof vests and an Islamic State flag.
Prosecutor Kristen Brook portrayed Kareem as being obsessed with Islamic State as it began a global terrorism menace last year, going so far as to indoctrinate a child in his neighborhood by showing him Internet videos of the group's militants burning a Jordanian pilot in a cage. She said he was instrumental in helping Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi in their thwarted attack on the cartoon contest before the pair was killed by an officer.
