Two men who cooperated with authorities investigating a Minnesota-based conspiracy to join the Islamic State group in Syria were rewarded with light sentences Monday.
(FOX)- But a third who chose not to help prosecutors got a 10-year sentence from a federal judge who still cut him a break partly because his parents have become active in the campaign against terrorist recruiting within the state’s large Somali community.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis sentenced Abdullahi Mohamed Yusuf, 20, to the 21 months he’s already served in jail. Abdirizak Warsame, 21, didn’t fare as well, but his sentence of 2½ years in prison was two years less than prosecutors sought. While all three pleaded guilty, Zacharia Abdurahman, 21, got 10 years in prison because he didn’t cooperate with the government and refused to testify against against the other members of what Davis called a “terrorist cell.”
Davis point-blank asked Abdurahman why he didn’t.
“As a man, I made a decision not to do that to my former friends. Your honor, I’m a man of principal. … Our religion teaches you not to harm another brother,” he replied, sniffing and wiping away tears as he stood before the court.
But Abdurahman also apologized to his family and community. He admitted that he was once a committed supporter of the Islamic State and its violent jihadist ideology, which he said eventually abandoned after his arrest. He agreed with Davis that he had been a terrorist.
All three must also serve 20 years on supervised release, starting with up to a year in a halfway house.