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| Muhammad Khwais was convicted in 2017 of facilitating terrorists (Photo: AP) |
For the first time in the United States, a jury has sentenced its own citizen to join ISIS, but the Court of Appeal has reduced his prison term from 20 to 14 years.
According to the Associated Press. Khwais was convicted in 2017 of facilitating terrorists and carrying weapons.
Mohammed Khwais traveled to ISIS-controlled areas in Iraq and Syria in December 2015.
He even obtained an official ISIS membership card, but left a few months later and surrendered to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.
In 2020, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dropped the weapons charges and ordered a new trial.
Although there is no evidence that he worked for ISIS, there was evidence in his case that he volunteered to be a suicide bomber and that he cared for wounded fighters in safe houses.
Mohammad Khwais also admitted in the trial that he burned his laptop and several phones and deleted contact information before fleeing ISIS.
He also said he was concerned that the laptop contained financial information such as his credit score, which the judge said was incomprehensible.
The 32-year-old has been in custody since March 2016 and Muhammad Khwais, who grew up in Northern Virginia and worked as a metro access bus driver for disabled passengers before joining ISIS, said: "It's for me now.
It is also disturbing that I made this terrible decision.
Joyce Carmichael, Joyce Carmichael's attorney, said in a statement after Tuesday's hearing that Joyce had worked "extraordinarily hard" during her years in prison to show that she was taking the case seriously.
He is proud of them and hopes that other detainees will have the opportunity to do the same.
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