Al-Qaida Recruit Who Plotted Naperville Nightclub Bombing Is Sentenced

AURORA, IL — An Aurora man was sentenced Thursday to the maximum 15 years in prison for trying to join an al-Qaida branch as a teenager. Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, now 23, was 18 when he was accused of plotting to blow up the now-defunct LIT nightclub on the border of Naperville and Aurora. “At your age, you traded the opportunity to attend college for a terrorist training camp," U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan told Tounisi, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Tounisi had spent four months researching overseas travel and violent jihad, focusing specifically on Syria and the Jabhat al-Nusrah terrorist organization, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. The investigation was led by the Chicago FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and 20 more law enforcement agencies.

The plea agreement states Tounisi exchanged a series of emails to a recruiter and planned to go to Syria by way of Turkey. In 2013, he had a passport mailed to an Aurora P.O. box before he was caught trying to leave the country at O’Hare International Airport. The recruiter turned out to be an FBI employee.

Tounisi's close friend, Adel Daoud, of Hillside, was arrested in 2012 for allegedly attempting to blow up a bar in downtown Chicago. Tounisi helped Daoud plan it but ultimately decided against participating in the attack, authorities said. Daoud was charged separately and is awaiting trial in federal court in Chicago.

Related: Terror Suspect Allegedly Wanted to Blow Up Nightclub on Naperville Border

More than a dozen friends and relatives gathered in the front row of the courtroom for the hearing, the Tribune reported. Tounisi apologized to them, adding that he was thankful to have been stopped. In 2013, Tounisi reportedly attended College of DuPage, where he viewed violent jihadist videos in the computer lab, according to court documents obtained by the Tribune.

Image via Shutterstock