CHICAGO, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A 19-year-old suspect pleaded not guilty in federal court in Chicago Friday to charges he tried to have an FBI agent killed.
Adel Daoud of Hillside, who previously was charged with terrorism in what prosecutors describe as an attempt to bomb the Cactus Bar and Grill in downtown Chicago, pleaded not guilty one count each of attempted murder of a federal agent, murder-for-hire and obstruction of justice, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Daoud was jailed after he ignited what he thought was a car bomb outside the bar in 2012. An agent posing as a terrorist from New York had supplied him with a fake bomb, WBBM, Chicago, reported.
An indictment last week alleged Daoud plotted while in jail to kill the agent to keep him from testifying at Daoud's trial. He was charged with attempted murder of a federal agent, murder for hire and obstruction of justice.
After Friday's plea hearing, Thomas Anthony Durkin, Daoud's lawyer, described his client as a naive and gullible teenager, and the victim of a "jailhouse snitch" who is at the heart of the attempted murder case.
The charges allege a person Dauod met in the Kankakee Country, Ill., jail offered to help kill the agent in exchange for payment, the Tribune said.
"It's an absurd plot on its face," Durkin claimed. "He's a 19-year-old kid with no money."
