A U.S. judge in Minnesota has given jail time to three Somali-Americans found guilty of conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State, but rewarded two of them with lighter sentences for cooperating with the government.
The harshest sentence was given to Zacharia Abdurahman, who got 10 years in prison. The prosecution wanted 15 years in prison for Abdurahman. The judge, Michael Davis, made it clear that Abdurahman received the toughest sentence because he did not testify against his former co-conspirators.
Abdurahman was stopped at JFK airport in New York in 2014 while attempting to travel to Greece on his way to Syria to join Islamic State. The following year he was involved in a second attempt to travel to Syria.
Also sentenced Monday was Abdirazak Warsame and Abdullahi Yusuf, both of whom cooperated with the U.S. government. Warsame received 30 months in prison, while Yusuf got off for time served in prison, the 21 months he already has been in jail. Both testified against some of their former friends.