ISIS case defendant has prison sentence cut to 10 years

Updated: 6:30 p.m. | Posted: 5:56 p.m.

A Minnesota man who was recently sentenced for plotting to join the Islamic State group has had his prison time reduced from 15 years to 10.

Hamza Ahmed was sentenced earlier this month to consecutive sentences for one count of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of financial aid fraud.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that his sentences should run concurrently instead, so the 21-year-old will be locked up for 10 years, followed by 20 years of supervised release.

Ahmed was one of nine men in Minnesota's large Somali community who prosecutors say were part of a group of friends who inspired and recruited each other to join the militant group.

Some of their friends made it to Syria.

Ahmed was the last of six Twin Cities men to take a plea deal. In a sealed court document filed Monday, his attorney alleged her client at first rejected the deal because of improper influence.

At the time, another man in the case had alleged that a St. Paul imam working as a paralegal of another defendant had been lobbying families to have their sons take their cases to trial.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis said Ahmed's attorney should have come forth with her allegations before Ahmed was sentenced.

But the judge told Ahmed that he "wouldn't be able to sleep" if he gave him a prison sentence he didn't deserve.