Angry American prosecutors say man, 24, who promoted ISIS online after moving from Texas to Sydney deserves more jail time after he was imprisoned for just 18 months
- Prosecutors urging for man who promoted Islamic State to have longer sentence
- Asher Khan, 24, moved from Texas to Sydney to live with relatives in 2013
- He became ‘frustrated with life’ and planned to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS
- Khan received an 18-month prison sentence in 2018 after he pleaded guilty
- US prosecutors are saying he should be serving a much longer sentence
Prosecutors are urging for a man who moved to Australia, promoted ISIS online and recruited a friend to fight for the terror group to have more time behind bars.
Asher Khan, 24, moved from Texas to Sydney to live with relatives after he became ‘frustrated with life’, and began to plan to travel to Syria and fight for ISIS.
Khan received an 18-month prison sentence in 2018 after he pleaded guilty in the US District Court in Houston for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation.
Prosecutors in the United States have since launched a furious bid to substantially increase his prison sentence.
Asher Khan (pictured), 24, moved from Texas to Sydney to live with relatives after he became ‘frustrated with life’, and began to plan to travel to Syria and fight for IS
Khan (pictured right with his mother) received an 18-month prison sentence in 2018 after he pleaded guilty in the US District Court in Houston for providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation
US Prosecutors originally asked for the 24-year-old to serve 15 years in prison and have appealed the sentence.
They told the the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday they were unaware of a comparable defendant in the US court system receiving ‘such a low sentence’.
They cited 35-year, 30-year and 10-year jail terms handed down to others convicted of similar terror offences.
‘The district court’s 18-month sentence so far exceeded the bounds of reasonableness that it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, and public reputation of judicial proceedings,’ prosecutor Danielle Tarin wrote.
Khan moved to Sydney in 2013, promoted IS activities online, expressed a desire to travel to the Middle East to fight for IS and was full of praise for American-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki.
He also began recruiting friends to join him, including Sixto Ramiro Garcia, a 20-year-old American and convert to Islam who attended his mosque in Texas.
Khan, from Australia, reached out to Turkey-based Australian IS supporter Mohamed Zuhbi who helped facilitate travel for potential recruits.
‘Meanwhile Khan continued declaring on social media that he wanted to fight for ISIS and hoped to become a martyr,’ Tarin wrote.
US Prosecutors originally asked for the 24-year-old to serve 15 years in prison and have appealed the sentence
In February 2014 Khan, from Sydney, and Garcia, from the US, co-ordinated their flights so they landed in Turkey about the same time.
Upon his departure, Khan sent messages to his family in Texas informing them of his plans.
They tricked him into returning to the Texas with a fake story his mother had a heart attack, was in intensive care and ‘he needed to come home to see her before she died’.
Khan, living back in the US, continued to distribute ISIS propaganda and offered to send money and food to Garcia, who went on to join ISIS in Syria.
Khan moved to Sydney in 2013, promoted IS activities online, expressed a desire to travel to the Middle East to fight for IS and was full of praise for al-Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki
Garcia died fighting in Iraq.
Prosecutors argued Khan’s sentence trivialised his conduct and took the sentencing judge to task for suggesting Khan ‘was a naive and disaffected youth deceived by ISIS propaganda who acted more like ‘a travel agent’ than a terrorist’.
‘The court – drawing on parallels to the Salem witch trials, Savonarola, and Voltaire – emphasised how common it is for naive credulity to lead to extremism,’ the prosecutor wrote.