A US citizen accused of providing material support to the Islamic States (IS) terrorist organization, which he joined in 2015 in Syria, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison plus 20 years of supervised release, authorities said Friday.
Emraan Ali, 56, appeared in court in Miami in September 2020, charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to IS.
The US citizen, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, pleaded guilty, according to a statement from the Attorney for the Southern District of Florida that was released this Friday.
The indictments stated in March 2015 that Emraan Ali traveled to Syria with his family in order to join IS, receiving military and religious training, as well as serving as a fighter alongside his son Jihad Ali, in support of the terrorist organization.
Emraan Ali, who is also known as Abu Jihad Al-Trinidadi Al-Amriki, served in other roles in support of IS, such as his work constructing buildings for the terrorist group’s operations.
Among the convict’s actions, he became a trader and began buying and selling livestock, cars, weapons, weapon accessories, and phones to other IS members.
The prosecution specified that between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, after the Islamic State was attacked in Al-Shafah, Ali moved his family to Baghuz, Syria.
Both Emraan and his son Johan Ali surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) near Baghuz in March 2019, during ISIL’s latest battles to hold territory in Syria.
Both were detained by the Kurdish-led SDF and transferred to FBI custody.
Emraan’s sentence was imposed by Judge Beth Bloom, and announced by United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s Homeland Security Division, and Agent FBI Special, Jeffrey B. Veltri.
With information from the EFE agency
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