Adis Medunjanin, 25, was arrested Friday after he caused a traffic accident while under surveillance. He is to appear in court Saturday.
His former classmate, Zarein Ahmedzay, has pleaded not guilty to a false statement charge in an indictment accusing him of lying to the FBI about a trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Law enforcement officials familiar with the case said Friday that Medunjanin was facing more serious terror charges; one said he likely would be accused of seeking training from a terrorist organization. The officials were not authorized to discuss the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
During a brief appearance in federal court in Brooklyn on Friday, Ahmedzay was ordered held without bail until a hearing Tuesday. Defense attorney Michael Marinaccio noted that the indictment made no mention of terrorism.
"It seems to me that if (prosecutors) had that kind of information, we'd be reading about it in the indictment," he told reporters outside court.
Ahmedzay, 24, and Medunjanin were first publicly linked to the investigation in September, when investigators raided their homes shortly before the arrest of Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado airport shuttle driver who has pleaded not guilty to supporting terrorism. The former Queens high school classmates are suspected of going to Pakistan in 2008.
The latest arrests came after the FBI went to Medunjanin's Queens apartment Thursday afternoon with a search warrant and seized his passport. After the search, he apparently became upset and left in his car.
While driving erratically, Medunjanin called 911 and made angry comments referencing Allah, the law enforcement officials said. He got into an accident and was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.
Federal authorities later took him into custody for questioning before deciding to arrest him early Friday, the officials said. Agents arrested Ahmedzay at about 3 a.m. while he was driving a cab in the Greenwich Village area of Manhattan, authorities said.
"He's not guilty," Shried Ahmedzay, 22, his brother, said Friday. "He works hard to support his family."
The brother said it was obvious that authorities had him under surveillance for months, noting that unmarked cars frequently parked around his apartment building.
Medunjanin's attorney, Robert C. Gottlieb, has said FBI agents seized computers and cell phones from his client's apartment last fall but later returned them. He insisted Friday that Medunjanin had done nothing wrong and claimed that federal authorities hadn't let his client confer with him or his family since an arrest made "under incredibly suspicious circumstances."
