CHICAGO — A federal complaint accuses a Chicago 19-year-old of posting messages through a social media site typically used to produce humorous memes to threaten a deadly attack on an abortion clinic in the city.
The document unsealed Monday says Farhan Sheikh wrote on his iFunny page last week that he’d “slaughter and murder any doctor, patient, or visitor” he saw at the clinic, adding he wasn’t joking. The filing doesn’t identify the clinic.
Sheikh is charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. It carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
Agents arrested him Friday and he made an initial appearance in Chicago federal court Monday morning. Standing in orange jail clothes, he told the magistrate judge he understood the charges.
A message left for his court-appointed federal defender, Amanda Penabad, wasn’t immediately returned. A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
