- Abelhamid al-Madhyam, who once fought for ISIS, faces an indeterminate sentence after his hearing was cancelled.
- Federal prosecutors have recommended a 12-year sentence for al-Madhyam, given the seriousness of his crimes.
- Al-Madhyam was 18 years old in 2014 when ISIS recruited him.
A man from minnesota A man who once fought for the Islamic State group in Syria but now expresses remorse for joining the “death cult” and is cooperating with federal authorities will have to wait to learn what his sentencing will be like on Wednesday. How much jail sentence will he have to face after the hearing is cancelled?
Federal prosecutors have recommended a 12-year sentence for Abelhamid al-Madiyam, given both the seriousness of his crimes and the assistance he provided to the United States and other governments. His lawyer says seven years is enough and that al-Madhyam, 27, stopped believing in the group’s extremist ideology several years ago.
A court notice posted online just two hours before the hearing was to begin said it would be rescheduled to a date to be determined. No reason for cancellation was given in the notice.
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Al-Madhyam was 18 years old in 2014 when IS recruited him. The college student moved away from his family on a trip to his native Morocco in 2015. After going to Syria, he became a soldier of IS, also known as ISIS. as isis, until he was crippled in an explosion in Iraq. Unable to fight, he used his computer skills to serve the group. He surrendered to US-backed rebels in 2019 and was imprisoned in harsh conditions.
This photo shows Abelhamid al-Madiyam, a Minnesota man who once fought for the Islamic State group in Syria. (Sherburne County Jail via AP)
Al-Madhyam returned to the US in 2020 and pleaded guilty in 2021 to providing material support to a designated terrorist organization. According to court filings, he is cooperating with US authorities and allied governments. The defendants say they hope to work in counter-terrorism and counter-radicalization efforts in the future.
“The man who walked away was young, ignorant and misguided,” Al-Madiam said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery.
“I have been changed by life’s experiences: from the betrayal I endured as a member of ISIS, to becoming a father of four children, a husband, an amputee, a prisoner of war, a malnourished beggar, seeing the pain and suffering and losing teeth. The grinding that causes terrorism, the humiliation, the tears, the embarrassment,” he said. “I joined a death cult, and it was the biggest mistake of my life.”
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Prosecutors acknowledged that al-Ma’adim had provided useful assistance to the United States. Authorities participated in several national security investigations and prosecutions, and he accepted responsibility for his crime and pleaded guilty immediately upon returning to the United States, but says they reduced his sentence to a recommended sentence of 12 years instead of the statutory maximum of 20 years. Collaboration included.
“The defendant did more than promote extremist beliefs,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “He chose violent action by taking up arms for ISIS.”
Al-Madiam, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was one of several Minnesotans suspected of leaving the U.S. to join the Islamic State group, along with thousands of fighters from other countries around the world. About three dozen people are believed to have left Minnesota to join terrorist groups in Somalia or Syria. In 2016, nine people from Minnesota were sentenced on federal charges of conspiring to join IS.
But al-Madiyam is one of the relatively few Americans who have been repatriated to the US and who actually fought for the group. According to a defense sentencing memorandum, he is one of 11 adults who will be formally extradited to the United States from the conflicts in Syria and Iraq by 2023 to face charges of terrorist-related crimes and alleged affiliations with IS. Others received sentences ranging from four years to life imprisonment and up to 70 years.
The defense memorandum says Al-Madiem grew up in a loving and non-religious family in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. He joined IS because he wanted to help Muslims who he believed were being massacred by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in that country’s civil war. IS recruiters persuaded him to “test his faith and become a real Muslim”.
But he was a fighter for less than two months before he lost his right arm below the elbow in an explosion, which left two of his legs badly broken and other serious injuries. The defense says he may still need a leg amputated.
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While convalescing in 2016, he met his first wife Fatima, an IS widow who already had a son and gave birth to another son in 2017. They lived in poverty and under constant air attacks. He was unable to work, and his stipend from IS stopped in 2018. The defense says they lived in a temporary tent.
He married his second wife, Fozia, in 2018. She was also an IS widow and already had a 4-year-old daughter. They separated in early 2019. He later heard that he and his daughter had died together. The defense says the first wife is also dead, having been shot in front of al-Madiyam in 2019 by rebel forces or an IS fighter.
The day after that shooting, he left with his sons and surrendered to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who held him under conditions described as “heinous” for 18 months until the FBI returned him. . to America
As for al-Madhyam’s children, the rescue memo said they were eventually found in a Syrian orphanage and that their parents would be their foster parents when they reach the US.
