A would-be Islamic State (ISIS) recruit from California was sentenced on Monday to 30 years in prison for his conviction on charges he sought to join the group in Syria and committed bank fraud to pay for a plane ticket there, federal prosecutors said, according to Reuters.
Nader Elhuzayel, 25, was found guilty in June by a U.S. District Court jury in Santa Ana, California, of conspiring and attempting to provide material support, namely himself, to a terrorist organization, and 26 counts of bank fraud.
He became the first person tried, convicted and sentenced for such charges in federal court.
More than 70 individuals have so far been charged in the United States with trying to travel abroad to enlist with ISIS, with most cases resulting in guilty pleas.
A native-born U.S. citizen, Elhuzayel worked various odd jobs after graduating from high school, took a course in medical billing and attended community college for several semesters, according to a pre-sentencing memorandum quoted by Reuters.
He was arrested on May 21, 2015, when he tried to board a Turkish Airlines plane at Los Angeles International Airport for a flight to Turkey, from where he had planned to make his way to the Syrian border, federal prosecutors said.
Found in his carry-on bag was a computer storage drive containing graphic photos of ISIS beheadings and a "hit list" of U.S. Defense Department employee names and addresses compiled by the extremist group, according to evidence presented at the trial.
Weeks earlier, prosecutors said, Elhuzayel had posted Twitter messages professing support for a 2015 incident in Texas in which two gunmen attacked an exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad and were shot to death by police.
Elhuzayel also appeared in a video swearing allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and pledging to enlist as a fighter in the group, which has seized swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on civilians in Europe.
The case is one of several examples of the phenomenon of radicalization which has plagued the United States and other Western countries.
In early June, weeks before Elhuzayel was found guilty, 22-year-old Nicholas Michael Teausant of California was sentenced to 12 years in prison for seeking to travel to Syria to join ISIS.
Teausant, a convert to Islam, had pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to provide material support or resources to a terror group. He was arrested in March 2014 near the Canadian border, while en route to Syria to join the terror network.
He allegedly told the FBI under interrogation that he wanted to go to Syria in the hope of becoming famous and "being on every news station in the world."
American authorities over the past year or so have arrested and charged several people of supporting ISIS.
Faisal Mohammad, a California college student who stabbed four people late last year was reported to have been carrying an image of the black flag of ISIS as well as a handwritten manifesto with instructions to behead a student and multiple reminders to pray to Allah.
Prosecutors said Elhuzayel and a co-defendant, Muhanad Badawi, repeatedly used social media to express their support for ISIS.
Badawi was convicted in a joint trial with Elhuzayel of conspiring with him to support terrorism, aiding and abetting his efforts by purchasing his one-way plane ticket, and a single count of financial aid fraud in connection with the plot.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 17, and faces up to 15 years in prison for each count relating to providing support for terrorism, according to Reuters.