Islamic State Supporter Accused of Meeting With Lindh

A northern Virginia man convicted nearly a decade ago of supporting the Islamic State group as a teenager has now been accused of violating the terms of his release by meeting with convicted Taliban supporter John Walker Lindh. According to court documents, the FBI photographed Ali Shukri Amin meeting with Lindh on three occasions for about three hours, the AP reports. The document does not state where the meetings occurred. They would be a violation of a condition of Amin's supervised release, which bars him from meeting with known extremists, prosecutors said.

The meetings could have well have constituted a violation of Lindh's supervised release as well when they occurred, but Lindh's term of supervised release expired last year, and he is no longer subject to supervision. It's not clear why authorities used the meeting as a basis to claim a violation against Amin but not against Lindh, given that they both were barred from meeting with extremists. The court documents show, though, that authorities were concerned about Amin for reasons beyond his meetings with Lindh. Amin, who lives in Dumfries, Virginia, is also accused of corresponding online with a British individual described as a "known extremist" until that person was arrested in February 2022 by British authorities.

In his conversations with the British person, authorities say Amin provided guidance related to the teachings of two Islamic preachers considered extremists by the FBI, according to the court document. Amin's case was notable primarily because of his age, per the AP. It's rare for federal prosecutors to seek convictions against people under the age of 18. But Amin was 17 when he pleaded guilty in 2015 to helping the Islamic State group by using social media to provide advice and encouragement to the Islamic State group and its supporters under the Twitter handle Amreekiwitness—Amreeki translates to "American." He was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison but had his sentence reduced to six years.

(More John Walker Lindh stories.)