Man sentenced to 20 years in prison in the US for trying to give material support to Islamic State

July 8. (EUROPA PRESS) –

A United States court has sentenced a man living in the state of Florida to 20 years in prison for trying to give material support to the Islamic State, after swearing allegiance to the jihadist group in 2014, when the then leader of the formation, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared a ‘caliphate’ in parts of Iraq and Syria.

The US Department of Justice has indicated that Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 32, of St. Augustine, pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to the group and has noted that the man “reaffirmed his support for Islamic State between 2018 and 2019 through various social media accounts.”

Likewise, it has indicated that the convicted person “posted videos produced by the Islamic State on his YouTube account and participated in Islamic State online chat rooms with people with a similar mentality.” During one of these conversations, he “expressed an interest in creating a video that would improve existing ones and show the making and use of explosives.”

The Department of Justice has pointed out that Langhorne made contact in February 2019 with an FBI employee who was working undercover and presented himself as a member of the Islamic State, to whom he conveyed his intention to create and disseminate a video with instructions for the manufacture of explosives to “provide knowledge” to followers of the jihadist group for “purposes related to terrorism”.

Subsequently, he sent several messages to this agent requesting information about the creation of a ‘nashid’ – a type of Muslim vocal music, sometimes accompanied by percussion – that included an Islamic State member shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is the largest) and a video of a child saying “kill them all” in order to “encourage justified revenge” against the United States.

Ultimately, the FBI produced the video claimed by Langhorne of explosives production, though it included a chemical formula in the footage to prevent an actual explosion from taking place. The convicted person spread the video on the Internet, after which he was ordered arrested and charged.