U.S. court sentences man joined ISIS in Syria to 10 years in prison
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A U.S. court sentenced on Thursday a man who fought for the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria to 10 years in prison.
Abelhamid al-Madioum, 27, a man from Minnesota, cooperated with the federal authorities before Thursday’s hearing, which helped lower his sentence from the statutory maximum of 20 years.
Al-Madioum was 18 in 2014 when he was recruited by the group. He left to Syria when he was on a family visit to his native country Morocco in 2015.
He served ISIS using his computer skills after he was unable to fight following his injury in an explosion in Iraq.
In 2019, al-Madioum surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after the territorial defeat of the group in its last stronghold in the town of Baghuz in eastern Deir ez-Zor.
He was repatriated to the U.S. in 2020 and pleaded guilty in 2021.
Al-Madioum was one of many individuals from Minnesota suspected of leaving the United States to join ISIS. In 2016, nine men from Minnesota were convicted on federal charges related to conspiring to join ISIS.
On June 12, a federal court convicted a man from Kentucky for receiving training and fighting with the ISIS in Syria ten years ago.
After Baghuz, thousands of ISIS fighters were transferred to prisons and detention centers, while their families were transferred to Hawl and Roj camps in areas run by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
The issue of ISIS family members constitutes an ongoing challenge for the internationally unrecognized AANES, which repeatedly demands concerned countries to repatriate their nationals.