AP – A Minnesota man who once fought for the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria but now expresses remorse for joining a “death cult” and has been cooperating with federal authorities will learn how much prison time he faces.
Federal prosecutors have recommended 12 years for Abelhamid Al-Madioum in recognition both of the seriousness of his crime and the help he has given the United States (US) and other governments. His attorney said seven years is enough and that Al-Madioum, 27, stopped believing in the group’s extremist ideology years ago. Al-Madioum was 18 in 2014 when IS recruited him. The college student slipped away from his family on a visit to their native Morocco in 2015.
Making his way to Syria, he became a soldier for IS until he was maimed in an explosion in Iraq. Unable to fight, he used his computer skills to serve the group. He surrendered to US-backed rebels in 2019 and was imprisoned under harsh conditions.
Al-Madioum returned to the US in 2020 and pleaded guilty in 2021 to providing material support to a designated terrorist organisation. According to court filings, he has been cooperating with US authorities and allied governments. The defence says he hopes to work in future counterterrorism and deradicalisation efforts.
“The person who left was young, ignorant, and misguided,” Al-Madioum said in a letter to US District Judge Ann Montgomery, who will sentence him. “I’ve been changed by life experience: by the treachery I endured as a member of IS, by becoming a father of four, a husband, an amputee, a prisoner of war, a malnourished supplicant, by seeing the pain and anguish and gnashing of teeth that terrorism causes, the humiliation, the tears, the shame,” he added.
“I joined a death cult, and it was the biggest mistake of my life.”
Prosecutors acknowledge that Al-Madioum has provided useful assistance to US authorities in several national security investigations and prosecutions, that he accepted responsibility for his crime and pleaded guilty promptly on his return to the US. But they say they factored his cooperation into their recommended sentence of 12 years instead of the statutory maximum of 20 years.
