Convicted ISIS supporter sentenced to an additional year in prison for meeting ‘American Taliban’ John Lind

CNN
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A Virginia man convicted of supporting ISIS in 2015 was sentenced on Thursday to an additional year in prison for violating the conditions of his release after repeated meetings with John Walker Lind, the so-called “American Taliban” and spreading ISIS propaganda online in encrypted chat rooms.

In 2015, Ali Shukri Amin pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS – publishing articles on how ISIS members can avoid detection in online communications and publishing instructions on how the terrorist group can use cryptocurrency to raise funds, under a recognition agreement. guilt.

Amin, who was 17 years old when he pleaded guilty, served several years in prison before being released under supervision.

According to the government, Amin violated the conditions of his release when he personally met convicted felon Lind on several occasions, communicated with him and others via an uncontrolled device, and distributed and translated ISIS propaganda online.

One file stored on his device, which Amin tried to share with others, contained an ISIS propaganda video showing mass beheadings and attack instructions, prosecutors said, according to the government.

“Now he has a network of like-minded people convicted of terrorism,” the prosecutor’s office said, adding: Amin continues to support ISIS and “remains a danger to society.”

Amin’s lawyer, Jessica Carmichael, told the court that Amin also had anti-ISIS material on his computer and said his online conversations with Lind were mostly about job hunting.

“We’re talking about a three-time dinner with John Walker Lind,” Carmichael said, noting that Lind was also under surveillance during the meetings in 2021 and was under the supervision of the same probation officer as Amin.

Lind, who was released in 2019was also supervised and under the same conditions as Amin during the alleged meetings, but he was not accused of violating those conditions.

Amin told the court that the government used “selective quotes” taken out of context, but said he regretted “my bad decisions”.

“I’ll do better,” he told District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

Hilton also sentenced Amin to life-long supervised release.