Bolingbrook Man Gets 40 Months in Prison for Attempting to Join ISIS

CHICAGO, IL — A Bolingbrook man was sentenced Friday in federal court to 40 months in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release, for attempting to travel overseas to join a foreign terrorist organization in Syria.

Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 21, pleaded guilty last year to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The organization is identified in a written plea agreement as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (“ISIL”).

U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. imposed the 40-month prison term and ordered that it be followed by 20 years of intensive supervised release, the release said. Among the special terms of supervised release, Khan must participate in a mental health treatment program; consent at any time to a search by a probation officer or designated law enforcement official of his home, property and electronic communication devices in his possession and control; attend violent extremism counseling and comply with the requirements of a computer monitoring program, which includes the installation of computer-monitoring software on all devices in Khan’s possession and control that are capable of accessing the Internet.

Pursuant to the plea agreement, Khan agreed to fully and truthfully cooperate in any matter in which he is called upon by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Khan, a U.S. citizen from southwest suburban Bolingbrook, has been detained in federal custody since his arrest on Oct. 4, 2014, at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. According to his plea agreement, beginning no later than approximately February 2014, Khan used the Internet to obtain introductions to ISIL members in Syria and to assist him with traveling there to join the terrorist group. Khan admitted to speaking with ISIL members to coordinate the logistics of his admission into ISIL-controlled territory, the plea agreement states.

Khan further admitted in the plea agreement that he knew ISIL had been designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization. Khan intended to work in Syria under the direction and control of ISIL, and be required to take any assignment ISIL gave him.

photo via Patch archives