A college student in California was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for using a federal Pell Grant to fund his friend’s trip to the Middle East, where he planned to join the Islamic State, according to multiple sources.
Muhanad Elfatih M.A. Badawi of Orange County received the same punishment by a federal judge in Santa Ana, Calif., as his co-defendant, Nader Salem Elhuzayel, who was sentenced last month. Both were convicted in June on conspiracy to aid a foreign terrorist organization and other crimes.
“Badawi was a radicalizer, recruiter and facilitator, and like co-defendant Elhuzayel, defendant Badawi aspired to die a martyr fighting jihad for ISIL,” the prosecution said in its pre-sentencing brief, using one acronym for the Islamic State.
“Despite the attempts of others to dissuade him, defendant Badawi continued to promote the ISIL ideology and gather fighters for ISIL. In short, defendant Badawi’s role as a radicalizer, recruiter and facilitator makes him more dangerous than any single would-be fighter.”
Badawi, 25, lent his debit card to Elhuzayel to buy a one-way plane ticket from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, Israel. He used a $2,865 Pell grant he received from the federal government in March 2015 for college expenses to pay for the flight.
Both men had records of praising Islamic extremism on social media channels. Badawi’s attorney, Kate Corrigan, argued her client “was a lot of talk and absolutely no action,” and that the co-defendant scammed her client because he did not intend to repay him for the flight.
Elhuzayel was the first person in the U.S. to be convicted in an Islamic State “travel case.” He also was convicted on 26 counts of bank fraud.
