DENVER (CN) — Despite hearing an outpouring of support from his family, a federal magistrate judge on Friday declined to release from custody an 18-year-old Colorado man charged with aiding the Islamic State group.
Law enforcement arrested Humzah Mashkoor, of Westminster, on Dec. 19 after he passed through security at Denver International Airport, planning to fly to the United Arab Emirates and then journey on to Afghanistan join the IS terrorist group, according to an arrest affidavit.
Mashkoor faces a single charge of "attempting to provide material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations," which has a maximum sentence of 20 years.
The U.S. Secretary of State declared Al-Qaida in Iraq to be a foreign terrorist organization in 2004, then added the Islamic State of Iraq in 2014.
Since leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr, called on Muslims to embark of “hijrah,” or to emigrate and join the organization, on July 4, 2014, an estimated 25,000 have journeyed to Iraq and Syria, including 4,5000 Westerners and 250 Americans.
Federal investigators began tracking Mashkoor last year based on a suspicious activity referral from a social media platform.
Using different email addresses and usernames, Mashkoor posted content praising IS. To evade detection from algorithms, investigators say he used coded phrases, referring to emigration as a “vacation,” to IS supporters as “brothers,” and even spelling the organization's name with dollar signs as “I$I$.”
Mashkoor told an informant that his family had immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan, according to the arrest affidavit. In making plans to join IS, Mashkoor obtained travel vaccines and studied how to use cryptocurrency.
Investigators say Mashkoor told the informant he hoped to find a wife and to fight for IS, but that he would be willing to die as a martyr or carry out an attack in the U.S.
On behalf Mashkoor, defense attorney Kevin Cahill said his client had made a mistake.
“At the end of the day, Mr. Mashkoor is an 18-year-old, just a scared kid,” Cahill said. “This past week he has learned a valuable lesson that words he issues from his home in Colorado can have very real consequences.
More than a dozen members of Mashkoor’s family crowded into the gallery of a wood-paneled courtroom in the Byron Rogers Federal Building in downtown Denver. Ten relations submitted letters on Mashkoor’s behalf and his uncle asked to address the court.
“Thoughout his life, I have never heard him utter a profanity, he is compassionate and loves reading,” recalled Hayden Gharibyar, Mashkoor’s uncle.
At the time of his arrest, Gharibyar said, Mashkoor was reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," a book written for an elementary school audience.
Despite Mashkoor's intellectual challenges and autism diagnosis, Gharibyar said he saw Mashkoor’s arrest as a wakeup call and an opportunity for the young man to turn his life around and pursue higher education.
“It would come as no surprise to our family if in the future Hamzah would achieve a PhD,” he said. “We earnestly seek the opportunity to guide Humzah in rehabilitation.”
U.S. Attorney Laura Cramer-Babycz acknowledged Mashkoor’s age and mental illness, but stressed that the severity of the crime required him to be detained.
“We have here a defendant who has professed over and over again that he is willing to die for his cause and that he took steps to further that goal,” Cramer-Babycz said. “This is not just a situation where Mr. Mashkoor has expressed his desire to fight for IS in Afghanistan or IS, he took steps to make it a reality.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kate Crews deliberated over a 15-minute recess before reaching a decision.
“It’s not lost on this court that Mr. Mashkoor is a young man with possible mental illness and the diagnosis of high-functioning autism. It is clear he has a sea of familiar support,” Crews said from the bench. “But based on this evidence, there’s no reasonable assurance here that the court can simply chalk all this up to the defendant simply being a young man.”
Another young man, from Castle Rock, Colo., pleaded not guilty to similar charges in July.
Mashkoor returns to court Jan. 11.
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