US Teen Sentenced to 11 Years for Helping ’ISIL’

Local Editor

The United States Department of Justice stated in a press release that Ali Shukri Amin, 17, of Manassas, Virginia, has been sentenced to 136 months in prison for providing material support to the "ISIL" Takfiri group and helping another teen travel to Syria to join the terrorists.

Authorities arrested Amin in early 2015 for offering online advice on how to use Bitcoin to fund "ISIL", as well as conspiring to provide material support and resources to the international terrorist organization.

In addition to his 11-years prison sentence, Amin will have a lifetime supervised release, including monitored internet activity.

The Department of Justice report revealed that Amin, who plead guilty on June 11, 2015, and admitted to using the Twitter handle @Amreekiwitness to provide advice and encouragement to "ISIL" and its supporters.

Furthermore, he used social media to provide instruction on how to use Bitcoin to mask the provision of funds to "ISIL".

In his confession, Amin also admitted that he facilitated travel for Reza Niknejad, an 18-year-old Prince William County resident who traveled to Syria to join "ISIL" in January 2015.

The prosecutors were able to nab Niknejad and charge him on June 10, 2015, in the Eastern District of Virginia. Niknejad was found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, provide material support to "ISIL", and kill and injure people abroad.

Federal prosecutors asked US District Court Judge Claude Hilton to sentence Amin to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in June. The judge took a slightly more lenient view on the teenager's punishment, giving him 11 years instead.

Accordingly, FBI director James Comey told lawmakers in Congress last month that about 200 Americans had traveled or attempted to travel to Syria to join the "ISIL".

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team