A Massachusetts pharmacist accused of conspiring to kill Americans sought release to home confinement Thursday, as his lawyer said the FBI had asked his client to be an informant. Tarek Mehanna, 27, was initially arrested a year ago on charges of lying to the FBI in a 2006 interview. He was free on bail when he was re-arrested last month on more serious charges of plotting to shoot US shoppers and kill two unnamed government officials. But Mehanna's court-appointed attorney, J.W. Carney Jr, said his client was only charged after he refused to become an FBI informant against Muslims. The lawyer asked that Mehanna be placed under home confinement, and sought his release on bail. A crowd of about 100 supporters stood outside the packed court, as Mehanna, who is unmarried and lives with his parents in the affluent Boston suburb of Sudbury, blew two kisses to his mother and waved to the courtroom. A federal grand jury indicted Mehanna and Ahmad Abousamra in early November, based upon information the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized from Mehanna's computer, secret recordings and interviews with witnesses. Abousamra has not yet been arrested and is reportedly in Syria. The pair is charged with conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide false information to law enforcement and making false statements to law enforcement. During the detention hearing, Magistrate Judge Leo Sorokin heard arguments from prosecutors and Carney on whether he should be held in prison until his trial, but Sorokin delayed his ruling. Carney said he expected the ruling to come 'in about two weeks.' Mehanna, who holds dual US and Egyptian citizenship, is currently in federal custody at the Plymouth Correction Center, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of Boston. Prosecutors told the judge that Mehanna had claimed he considered Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to be his real father and joked that instead of watching the popular TV show 'American Idol,' he enjoyed viewing beheadings. They also allege that Mehanna, who translated several militant media materials for online postings, hoped to join Al-Qaeda's media wing, and that he and Abousamra sought to recruit other young Boston men to engage in holy war. 'The government tried to use every method of character assassination that it could in order to paint the darkest picture of Tarek Mehanna,' said Carney, insisting that Mehanna's anti-American statements were protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. 'I hope the court will not be guided by hysteria and fear, rather than the law.' Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and living in Massachusetts since age 7, Mehanna obtained a doctorate in 2008 from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy. Carney said the FBI approached Mehanna twice in 2007 and asked him 'to become an informant against the Muslim community.' FBI agents then made a third visit and 'told him he would be charged with a crime' if he did not cooperate with the domestic spy agency and reveal the whereabouts of terror suspect Daniel Maldonado, who is now serving a 10-year prison sentence for training with Al-Qaeda in Somalia. A supporter of Mehanna, David Rolde, said he attended a special emergency meeting at a mosque in Wayland, Massachusetts on November 8 about the case, where Carney and a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union rights group spoke. 'Muslims were also instructed on how to behave during FBI interviews and how not to be intimidated,' said Rolde, 42. 