In this file photo, Kosovo police stand guard in Pristina.

A Kosovo man arrested in Malaysia on charges of hacking the personal information of US security officers and passing it to Daesh was well known to Kosovo police before he left to study abroad.

The US justice Department said Ardit Ferizi, 20, had been charged with hacking the details of 1,351 US military personnel and federal employees and handing them over to the militant group in Syria so it could target the individuals.

He was arrested in Malaysia on Friday, and will be extradited to the United States, authorities in Kuala Lumpur said.

A Kosovo police official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Ferizi had been arrested and released in Kosovo before he left to study abroad. He had been questioned on charges of hacking Internet sites in Kosovo “Police had a lot of information on what he did, when he left Kosovo,” he told Reuters.

In 2009, Ferizi claimed responsibility for hacking Kosovo’s biggest news portal Gazeta Express.

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