An American and his son, who was 14 when his family left for Syria to join the Islamic State (IS) group, were charged Wednesday in the United States with supporting a terrorist group.
Jihad Ali, who is now 19, and his father Emraan Ali were recently repatriated from Syria, where they had been held prisoner since last year by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish allies of the United States.
The two men were indicted by a federal court in Miami with
"material support for a foreign terrorist organization"
and face up to twenty years in prison.
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In 2015 Emraan Ali, born in Trinidad and Tobago and naturalized American, joined ISIS with his wife, their son Jihad and five other children.
According to court documents, Jihad Ali explained to FBI investigators last year that the teenager he was then was
"excited to discover a new country and travel
.
"
Jihad Ali was trained in weapons handling and combat by the jihadist group before being assigned to an English-speaking unit.
"He described some parts of his training as cool and others as scary,"
the court documents explain.
He and his father, now 53, were involved in the fighting.
They were joined there by another son of Emraan Ali, even younger than Jihad.
