ROCHESTER — A 26-year-old Rochester man pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for his role in planning an New Year’s Eve attack in 2015.
According to the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, Emanuel L. Lutchman pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr. of the Western District of New York. He has been detained in federal custody since his arrest by members of the FBI’s Rochester Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) on Dec. 30.
Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 15, where Lutchman faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime term of supervised release.
“Emanuel Lutchman admitted to conspiring with an ISIL member located overseas and planned to kill innocent civilians on U.S. soil in the name of the terrorist organization,” said Assistant Attorney General Carlin. “Countering terrorist threats remains the highest priority of the National Security Division, and we will continue our efforts to bring to justice those who conspire to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations. I want to thank the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who contributed to the disruption of this deadly plot.”
As part of his guilty plea, Lutchman admitted that he conspired with an individual known as Abu Issa Al-Amriki, a now-deceased ISIL member in Syria, and planned to conduct an attack against civilians using knives and a machete on New Year’s Eve in 2015. Lutchman admitted that he intended to conduct an attack that could be claimed by ISIL and that could also help him gain membership into ISIL when he thereafter traveled overseas to join the terrorist organization.
“Residents of this community can now sleep better knowing that a person who wanted to kill in the name of an infamous terrorist group – right on the streets of our city – will no longer be a threat,” said U.S. Attorney Hochul.
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