A Jordanian citizen who was living in Ohio has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempting to join the Islamic State group.
U.S. District Judge Walter Rice also sentenced Laith Waleed Alebbini to 25 years of probation Thursday, but the 28-year-old Alebbini likely will be deported after his prison term.
Alebbini was arrested at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport in 2017. Prosecutors say he was trying to fly to Turkey or Jordan before joining with Islamic State group fighters in Syria. He was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Federal authorities said Alebbini wanted to become a suicide bomber.
The Dayton Daily News reports Alebbini told the judge he has always been against terrorism and he never “thought of harming the American people.”
