Indictment: Restaurateur plotted to frame wife as terrorist

HANOVER, Md. – Federal prosecutors say a Maryland restaurant owner was under pressure, facing an impending divorce and financial ruin.

His solution, they say, was to burn down his restaurant for insurance money, and implicate his soon-to-be ex-wife as a terrorist.

The Capital reports a federal indictment unsealed Monday says 51-year-old Khalil Ahmad was already under pressure from creditors, and worried he’d have to pay out a large divorce settlement. He discussed killing her, but settled on paying an informant to frame her with “a ballistic vest, firearm, bottles of alcohol and extremist jihad writings.” Ahmad planned to have her arrested after burning down his restaurant, Allah Rakha, which means, roughly, “protected by God.”

Ahmad is charged with state and federal counts. The newspaper couldn’t obtain comment on his behalf.

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Information from: The Capital, http://www.capitalgazette.com/