A Bay Ridge man who was arrested in Kennedy Airport for allegedly sending money to terrorists in Pakistan said he was planning on moving to that country because he couldn’t raise enough terror cash in Brooklyn’s Muslim community.
Agron Hasbajrami, 27, was charged with sending more than $1,000 to a person in Pakistan who claimed he was fighting — and had killed — American troops.
But according to the indictment, one of the reasons Hasbajrami was leaving this country for the last home of Osama Bin Laden was because he was having a difficult time collecting money from neighborhood muslims once he told them it was for jihad. Hasbajrami told his contact that he wanted to travel to Pakistan to “marry with the girls in paradise” — jihadist code for dying as a martyr — and promised to bring as much money with him to help the cause, but claimed it was difficult to raise cash in Brooklyn because fellow Muslims became apprehensive when they “hear it is for jihad.”
Nancy Ennis, Hasbajrami’s lawyer, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Hasbajrami pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday afternoon.
Officials say Hasbajrami’s arrest is not connected to the current terror threat against the city and Washington, D.C., in which officials fear car bombs will be detonated by Pakistani jihadists to mark the 10th anniversary of 9-11.
Hasbajrami has been attempting to leave the country for more than a month, officials say. He bought a ticket last month to Turkey, but canceled it. He then purchased another ticket to Turkey on Monday and was arrested at the airport the next day while carrying a tent, boots and cold-weather gear.
Feds say they found a note in his apartment that read “Do not wait for invasion, the time is martyrdom time.”
Hasbajrami, who is Albanian, moved to Brooklyn in 2008.
If convicted of the charge, he faces 15 years behind bars. His next court date is Sept. 29.
