CNN
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A Virginia man convicted of offering help to ISIS in 2015 was sentenced Thursday to serve an extra yr in jail for breaking his launch circumstances after assembly a number of occasions with John Walker Lindh, the so-called “American Taliban” and sharing ISIS propaganda on-line in encrypted chats.
In 2015, Ali Shukri Amin pleaded responsible to offering help to ISIS – posting articles on how ISIS members might keep away from detection in on-line communications and sharing directions on how the terrorist group might use cryptocurrency for fundraising efforts, in accordance with the plea settlement.
Amin, who was 17 years outdated when he pleaded responsible, served a number of years in jail earlier than being launched on supervision.
In response to the federal government, Amin broke his launch circumstances when he met Lindh, a convicted felon, in particular person a number of occasions, communicated with him and others on an unsupervised system and shared and translated ISIS propaganda on-line.
One file saved on his system, which Amin tried to share with others, in accordance with the federal government, contained an ISIS propaganda video exhibiting mass beheadings and assault directions, prosecutors mentioned.
“Now he has a community of like-minded convicted terrorists,” prosecutors mentioned, including, “Mr. Amin continues to help ISIS” and “stays a hazard to society.”
Amin’s legal professional, Jessica Carmichael, advised the court docket that Amin additionally had anti-ISIS materials on his laptop and mentioned that his conversations with Lindh on-line have been largely about job searches.
“We’re speaking about having dinner with John Walker Lindh 3 times,” Carmichael mentioned, noting that Lindh was additionally on supervision on the time of the conferences in 2021 and was being supervised by the identical probation officer as Amin.
Lindh, who was launched in 2019, was additionally on supervised launch and topic to the identical situation as Amin on the time of the alleged conferences, however has not been accused of violating these phrases.
Amin advised the court docket the federal government had used “selective quotes” that have been out of context however mentioned he regretted “my poor selections.”
“I’ll do higher,” he advised District Decide Claude M. Hilton.
Hilton additionally sentenced Amin to a lifetime of supervised launch.
