Man Who Wanted to Fight in Syria’s Civil War Goes to Prison

DETROIT, MI — A federal judge sent a 24-year-old Dearborn Heights man to prison for five years after he said he wanted to join the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, classified by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, and fight in Syria’s civil war.

Mohammad Hamdan has been in custody since his 2014 arrest at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport as he was preparing to board a flight for his native Lebanon. He told FBI agents he was going back to his homeland for dental work, but later admitted that was not his true purpose. He pleaded guilty to making false statements to agents four months ago.

Hamdan will be given credit for time served. He won’t oppose the government’s effort to deport him when his prison sentence is finished, WWJ/CBS Detroit reported. A Lebanese national, Hamdan came to the United States in 2007, he is a permanent resident of the U.S. and had applied for citizenship.

In 2014, Hamdan cleared a security checkpoint, but was arrested before he could board an Air France flight bound for Paris and then Lebanon, where Hezbollah is based. The FBI learned of his plans to travel to Syria from a confidential informant several months ago. He reportedly told the informant that he had previously been involved with and had received military training from Hezbollah, starting at an early age and included using various weapons systems.

According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Hamdan told the informant he wanted to become active in the terrorist organization, which is tied to terrorist attacks on various U.S. targets that date back to 1983 and have killed nearly 260 Americans.

Photo via Shutterstock