ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A northern Virginia teenager was sentenced Friday to more than 11 years in prison for helping another teen travel to Syria to join Islamic State militants and for providing other aid to the group.
U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton, nominated by former President Ronald Reagan, said during sentencing in federal court in Alexandria that he considered 17-year-old Ali Shukri Amin’s age and lack of a criminal record in deciding the sentence.
With his parents, stepfather, grandmother and other family watching, Amin told the judge that he was taking responsibility for his actions and wouldn’t “ask for or expect sympathy.”
“I have not attempted to deny or explain away anything I have done,” said Amin, who wore a blue jail jumpsuit with the pants bottoms rolled for his 5 foot 10 inch, 105 pound frame.
Amin, who has cooperated with law enforcement, said in a letter to the judge ahead of the hearing that he denounces the Islamic State group, also know by the acronym ISIS, for “its violence and the way it twists the core tenants of Islam.”
He also talked in court about his Muslim faith, saying his “spiritual journey has only just begun.” He said in court and in his letter that in his early teens, when he was seeking to deepen his faith and make sense of what he was reading about in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, he turned to the “adults in my life,” including imams, but they “could not provide adequate answers” or seemed too “busy to try.” He said he got answers through contact with others on the Internet who urged him to “advocate violent jihad.”
Though juveniles rarely face charges in the federal system, Amin pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Amin also admitted that he helped a classmate travel to Syria to join the group in January.