ISIS ‘Bitcoin’ Supporter Gets 11 Years

A Virginia teenager who pleaded guilty to providing material support to ISIS was slapped with an 11-year prison sentence Friday, despite family and friends’ pleas that the judge be lenient with him. Ali Shukri Amin was arrested for running a pro-ISIS Twitter account called Amreeki Witness, which he used to help a friend go to Syria and to teach the Islamic State terror group how to use bitcoin to transfer funds without a paper trail. In letters submitted before sentencing, family members said his Crohn’s disease, congenital hand deformity, lack or relationship with his father, and his mother’s remarriage contributed to radicalizing him. Amin also wrote a letter apologizing to the judge, who still sentenced him to 136 months.