California Man Convicted of Recruiting for IS Gets 30 Years

(Reuters) —
An Islamic State flag is seen in this picture illustration taken February 18, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
An Islamic State flag. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

A California man convicted of attempting to help a friend travel to the Middle East to fight on behalf of the Islamic State terror group was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said.

Muhanad Badawi, 25, was found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to the terror group in the form of his recruit, Nader Elhuzayel, who was convicted of conspiring and attempting to join a terrorist organization. In September, Elhuzayel was also sentenced to 30 years in prison.

“The lengthy sentence imposed today results from the defendant’s acceptance of ISIL’s murderous ideology and his participation in a scheme designed to betray the United States,” United States Attorney Eileen Decker said on Wednesday.

In arguing for the 30-year sentence plus a lifetime of supervised release, U.S. prosecutors said Badawi was “a radicalizer, recruiter and facilitator” for Islamic State who aspired to die a martyr fighting for IS.

Prosecutors argued that Badawi deserved the same sentence as Elhuzayel.

“Their crimes are equally serious, their prospects for rehabilitation are equally bleak, and the need to protect the public from their future crimes and crimes by others like them is the same,” they wrote in a memorandum to the U.S. district court in Santa Ana, California, earlier this month.

Badawi’s defense attorney, Kate Corrigan of Corrigan, Welbourn, Stokke, had pushed for a 15-year sentence, arguing that unlike Elhuzayel, her client did not have a ticket in his hand to leave the country and join IS.

She said she plans to appeal the conviction and the sentence.

“The real message from today’s hearing is that anyone who thinks they want to support ISIS or even dabble in its rhetoric better be ready to serve a lot of time in prison,” Corrigan said.

Badawi was apprehended on May 21, 2015, the same day Elhuzayel was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport while attempting to travel to Tel Aviv, Israel, before heading to Istanbul, Turkey.

Badawi, who emigrated to the U.S. from Sudan in 2006, gave Elhuzayel access to a debit card linked to his Pell grant funds to purchase his one-way plane ticket, in violation of federal financial aid rules.

The two men made their travel arrangements four days after a May 4 attack by two gunmen on a heavily guarded Texas exhibit of caricatures of the founder of Islam. Both of the gunmen were killed by a police officer during the attack.

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