UH engineering student who tried to join ISIS in Syria sentenced to 18 months in federal prison

[Trisonics]

A college student from Spring who got cold feet en route to joining ISIS fighters in Syria was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison by a federal judge who warned him against following “impulses” in a search for “easy answers.”

In a sharp departure from the federal sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered Asher Abid Khan, 23, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston, to prison followed by five years of supervision after deciding he had shown potential for rehabilitation.

With three rows of his family and friends looking on in the courtroom, Khan apologized to the sobbing mother and other relatives of Sixto Ramiro Garcia, a former Klein Oak High School classmate who was killed in Syria after joining the jihadists.


“I am deeply sorry that things happened the way that they did and for whatever I may have done to facilitate it,” Khan said in a soft voice. “I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

The sentence surprised federal authorities, who had recommended more than 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision.

Khan told the judge that at 19 he felt torn between the American culture of his school friends and his family’s Pakistani culture at home. He became disillusioned by videos of Syrian children trapped in bombed-out buildings and thought the Islamic caliphate as seen through online propaganda was a noble solution to overthrowing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...d-to-join-ISIS-in-13023885.php#photo-15779216

 

[jetray]

A college student from Spring who got cold feet en route to joining ISIS fighters in Syria was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison by a federal judge who warned him against following “impulses” in a search for “easy answers.”

In a sharp departure from the federal sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered Asher Abid Khan, 23, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston, to prison followed by five years of supervision after deciding he had shown potential for rehabilitation.

With three rows of his family and friends looking on in the courtroom, Khan apologized to the sobbing mother and other relatives of Sixto Ramiro Garcia, a former Klein Oak High School classmate who was killed in Syria after joining the jihadists.


“I am deeply sorry that things happened the way that they did and for whatever I may have done to facilitate it,” Khan said in a soft voice. “I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

The sentence surprised federal authorities, who had recommended more than 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision.

Khan told the judge that at 19 he felt torn between the American culture of his school friends and his family’s Pakistani culture at home. He became disillusioned by videos of Syrian children trapped in bombed-out buildings and thought the Islamic caliphate as seen through online propaganda was a noble solution to overthrowing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...d-to-join-ISIS-in-13023885.php#photo-15779216

they never get disillusioned by what happens in yemen or when taliban blows up ppl or when kashmiri pandits are slaughtered for centuries or even when ISIS itself blows up its own ppl. Hypocrisy runs rife.

 

[Clutch]

they never get disillusioned by what happens in yemen or when taliban blows up ppl or when kashmiris are slaughtered for centuries or even when ISIS itself blows up its own ppl. Hypocrisy runs rife.

Good point.

 

[MultaniGuy]

A college student from Spring who got cold feet en route to joining ISIS fighters in Syria was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison by a federal judge who warned him against following “impulses” in a search for “easy answers.”

In a sharp departure from the federal sentencing guidelines, U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes ordered Asher Abid Khan, 23, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Houston, to prison followed by five years of supervision after deciding he had shown potential for rehabilitation.

With three rows of his family and friends looking on in the courtroom, Khan apologized to the sobbing mother and other relatives of Sixto Ramiro Garcia, a former Klein Oak High School classmate who was killed in Syria after joining the jihadists.


“I am deeply sorry that things happened the way that they did and for whatever I may have done to facilitate it,” Khan said in a soft voice. “I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

The sentence surprised federal authorities, who had recommended more than 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervision.

Khan told the judge that at 19 he felt torn between the American culture of his school friends and his family’s Pakistani culture at home. He became disillusioned by videos of Syrian children trapped in bombed-out buildings and thought the Islamic caliphate as seen through online propaganda was a noble solution to overthrowing the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-...d-to-join-ISIS-in-13023885.php#photo-15779216

Wow what a stupid man.

Whatever is going on in Syria is not Pakistan's problem.

Let the locals in Syria figure it out.