Hearing held in obstruction case

A Sterling, Va., man arrested Friday and accused of thwarting a terrorism investigation appeared in court for the first time Tuesday.

Sean Andrew Duncan, 21, a tall man with small, deepset eyes and a short, pointed brown beard wearing a T-shirt with an American flag on the back over the words “Herndon Police Department Supporter,” said only that he could not afford his own attorney and would like one appointed for him.

Law enforcement had not planned to arrest Duncan on Friday, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. But when they arrived at his front door with a search warrant, he ran barefoot out the back of the house and discarded a thumb drive that had been broken into pieces and immersed in a bubbling liquid, court files show.

Duncan had been on the FBI’s radar since February 2016, according to the affidavit, when a relative reported that he had converted to Islam, expressed radical views and planned to travel to Turkey with his wife.

He and his wife, Zakiya Sadeq, 36, flew to Turkey that month, according to the affidavit, with tickets to go on to Bangladesh and then back to the United States. But they were denied entry into Turkey at the airport and returned home, the affidavit states.

From there, authorities learned that Duncan was communicating with overseas Islamic State supporters about joining the group and was searching online for weapons and body armor.

Sadeq was caught completely off guard by her husband’s actions, said her attorney, Faisal Gill.

“She is as surprised as anyone — she’s just shocked,” Gill said Tuesday.

On the trip to Turkey, Gill said, Sadeq “had no intent of joining a terrorist organization.

She was traveling through Turkey to go on her honeymoon.”

The marriage caused friction with Duncan’s family, his sister’s fiance told The Washington Post. Sadeq, according to her LinkedIn profile, worked as a doctor.