US judge to check on man forcibly medicated in terror case
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A federal judge is checking whether a mentally ill North Carolina man accused of trying to join al-Qaida-linked fighters in Syria has improved after nearly a year of forced medication.
U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle wants to eyeball Basit Sheikh on Thursday. An appeals court ruled in June that Sheikh should be forcibly injected with anti-psychotic medication so he can be made competent to defend himself against prosecution.
Sheikh is from suburban Raleigh and has been described as suffering from schizophrenia.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He's charged with providing material support to a terrorist group for attempting to join Jabhat al-Nusra militants in 2013. He was detained in an FBI sting to find and arrest Americans before they left for Syria to fight in that country's civil war.