No time added for supporter of ISIS

Judge upholds earlier term for Spring man who backed group

A Spring man who completed a relatively light sentence for supporting ISIS militants in Syria was resentenced Friday to the exact same term by a Houston federal judge, meaning he won’t serve additional prison time.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes effectively told federal prosecutors that the defendant’s crimes, while serious, did not amount to much, and that the defendant had expressed consistent remorse for his involvement with violent extremists.

The freewheeling Ronald Reagan appointee framed the resentencing in the context of the Civil War, the 1886 Haymarket bombing, the 1901 assassination of President William McKinley and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

For the second time, the judge ordered 25-year-old Asher Abid Khan to 18 months in prison and five years of supervised release for providing material support to a terrorist group. Khan previously pleaded guilty to traveling to Turkey in 2014 to join ISIS in Syria and recruiting a Houston friend — Sixto Ramiro Garcia — to come with him. While Khan ditched his secret itinerary and returned to Tex

as, Garcia apparently died on the front lines amid ISIS militants.

David Adler, Khan’s lawyer, said that since his client’s last sentencing, he worked and tutored inmates in prison and since his release has been working, studying at the University of Houston and volunteering with organizations that counsel young Muslims to avoid extremism. Adler said there was no reason to impose a harsher sentence since there was no indication Khan had done anything but try to become a better person.

Khan — donning a tan suit and tie — solemnly read a brief statement, discussing the impact of the judge’s punishment.

“I realize how much I took freedom for granted,” he said. “I used my time in prison to plan how I could better myself when I was released ... in hopes of deterring someone else (from doing what I did).”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Ferko described the original sentence as a “90 percent discount” of what Khan should have faced.

Ferko said Khan would not have returned to the U.S. if his parents hadn’t tricked him into thinking his mother was in the intensive care unit.

Ferko asked the judge to impose a 15-year prison term and a lifetime of supervised release, arguing Khan was still young and impressionable and was merely telling the judge what he wanted to hear.

Adler said his client “absolutely recognizes the stupidity and the naivete that he exhibited” and said “prison helped mature him.”

Following a sweeping account of terrorist acts in American history, the judge told a room packed evenly with Khan’s supporters and government officials: “We have survived these attacks, we have thrived despite them because we have the rule of law. It is a complex system, it has the presumption of innocence,” he said. “The Constitution must work through reason not through anger or power. Our justice serves the narrowest of goals, it does not serve revenge.”

He noted that Khan had no prior criminal history, no drug use and, as a Muslim, doesn’t drink.

“He studied to improve his mind and his judgment while he was in custody,” the judge said. “It is conceivable his effort to stop extremism is a front, but he’s doing it, and it’s doing some good.”

The reason Khan ditched his plan didn’t matter, the judge said. The fact that Khan balked and left the Middle East meant he didn’t delve too deeply into the planned undertaking, he added.

“He was impressionable. He was stupid, and he exercised abysmal judgment,” Hughes said.

Federal probation officials recommended in 2018 that the judge sentence Khan to more than 20 years in prison. Prosecutors have generally asked for 20-year maximum sentences for the same crime, with others typically receiving sentences of nine to 15 years in prison, according to Jonathan Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.

After Hughes’ 2018 ruling, prosecutors mounted a successful appeal of the sentence, arguing that the judge failed to explain his reasoning for imposing a relatively light prison sentence. Friday’s resentencing sought to address the requirements of the appeals court.

U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick, who sat in the gallery along with several deputies and prosecutors, said it stood out to him that the judge never mentioned Khan’s friend who stayed in the Middle East and apparently died among ISIS fighters.

“He never mentioned that Sixto actually died, and that’s unfortunate,” Patrick said.

Ferko, from Patrick’s office, objected to the judge handing down the same sentence. The government could appeal again.

Adler said the government’s resistance felt counterintuitive.

“Why is the government bureaucracy that investigates and prosecutes terrorism activity — why are they trying so hard to stop him from trying to dissuade people from going down the same path he went down?” he asked. “Sometimes I suspect the answer is job security.”

At the other end of the hallway, Khan traded hugs with friends and family. He said he felt relieved.