One of the nine Twin Cities men sentenced this month on charges related to a conspiracy to join ISIL will serve five fewer years in prison as part of an amended judgment imposed Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis granted a request from Hamza Ahmed, 21, to serve 10 total years instead of the original 15-year sentence he received on two convictions: conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization and committing financial aid fraud in an attempt to finance his travel overseas.
Ahmed's sentence originally called for him to serve the sentences consecutively — 10 years for the material support charge and five years for financial aid fraud. Those sentences will now run concurrently. The new sentence matches those handed down for three other defendants who, like Ahmed, pleaded guilty before trial but did not cooperate with the government.
"He is very happy, and I'm very happy — this is a just result for Hamza," said JaneAnne Murray, Ahmed's attorney.
Ahmed was pulled off a plane in New York in November 2014 and later arrested two months before six other co-conspirators were picked up in a series of arrests in Minneapolis and San Diego. He was one of two defendants allowed to plead guilty weeks before a May trial after the discovery that an imam who served as a member of another man's legal team had interfered with plea negotiations.
