Cab driver who tried to help Islamic State faces sentence

Published March 16, 2017

A taxi driver caught helping a friend try to join the Islamic State group during an FBI sting faces a sentence of anywhere from four to 28 years.

Twenty-six-year-old Mahmoud Elhassan of Woodbridge, Virginia, was arrested last year after he drove Joseph Farrokh to the Richmond airport, where he planned to begin a trip to join the Islamic State in Syria.

Prosecutors say Elhassan, who started a prayer table outside Verizon Center in Washington seeking to proselytize others to Islam, offered himself online as a "sleeper cell" to overseas radicals. The government is seeking a sentence near the 28-year maximum at a hearing Friday in Alexandria, Virginia.

Elhassan's lawyers are asking for a term of four to six years.

Farrokh was sentenced to 8½ years in prison.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/cab-driver-who-tried-to-help-islamic-state-faces-sentence