A Bolingbrook teen charged with trying to join Islamic State terrorists in Syria pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.
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Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, identified in a written plea agreement as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The charge carries a maximum 15-year sentence.
Khan was nabbed by federal agents in October at O’Hare Airport as he tried to travel to the Middle East with two younger siblings. He said Khan has changed his mind about Islamic State in the past year.
Khan’s mother told reporters this year that Islamic State recruiters brainwashed her son and others using slick social media campaigns. “Leave our children alone”, said Zarine Khan, mother of the suspect.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations and the Illinois State Police also provided significant assistance in the investigation. But if he continues to cooperate with prosecutors – potentially providing insight into online recruiting – the government agreed to recommend a sentence of five years. As part of the plea deal, Khan must seek “psychological and violent extremism counseling” once he is released from prison.
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Among the conditions: He would be barred from communicating with non-relatives outside the USA and must allow periodic searches of his computers and smartphones for at least 7 1/2 years. “You’re a young man with the rest of your life ahead of you, you don’t want to spend it in a federal penitentiary”, said Khan’s attorney Thomas Durkin. He said, “These are American kids – not a few lunatics from Mars”.
