This photo, provided by the US District Court, Alexandria, is of Mohammed Jamal Khweis, 27, the only American citizen to be convicted in a US jury trial of successfully joining ISIL overseas. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on October 27, 2017. US District Court, Alexandria, Va / The Associated Press
This photo, provided by the US District Court, Alexandria, is of Mohammed Jamal Khweis, 27, the only American citizen to be convicted in a US jury trial of successfully joining ISIL overseas. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on October 27, 2017. US District Court, Alexandria, Va / The Associated Press
This photo, provided by the US District Court, Alexandria, is of Mohammed Jamal Khweis, 27, the only American citizen to be convicted in a US jury trial of successfully joining ISIL overseas. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on October 27, 2017. US District Court, Alexandria, Va / The Associated Press
This photo, provided by the US District Court, Alexandria, is of Mohammed Jamal Khweis, 27, the only American citizen to be convicted in a US jury trial of successfully joining ISIL overseas. He was s

American who 'regretted' joining ISIL gets 20 year sentence


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A 27-year-old American who joined ISIL in Syria and later claimed he escaped and fled into the hands of Kurdish troops after a "bad decision" was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Mohammed Jamal Khweis left his job driving a bus for disabled people in northern Virginia in December 2015 to travel to ISIL's stronghold of Raqqa.

He spent about two and a half months as a member of ISIL, taking part in religious training and staying in various safe houses, allegedly preparing to be a suicide bomber.

He was detained by Kurdish peshmerga fighters in March 2016 in Tal Afar, Iraq, and later claimed he escaped the extremists, telling a Kurdish television station in Erbil that he did not see them as "good Muslims".

But the Federal Bureau of Investigation rejected his claims, saying he clearly had sought to join the group, selling his car and leaving home without telling anyone.

"The evidence at trial demonstrated that Mohammed Khweis is an unpredictable and dangerous person who was radicalised towards violent jihad," said Dana Boente, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

"Khweis purposefully travelled overseas with the intent to join [ISIL] in support of the terrorist group's efforts to conduct operations and execute attacks to further their radical ideology," added Andrew Vale, the Washington field office director for the FBI.

"Khweis recognised that [ISIL] uses violence in its expansion of its caliphate and he committed to serving as a suicide bomber."

A federal jury convicted Khweis on June 8 on all three charges against him, including providing and conspiring to provide material support or resources to ISIL, and a related firearms count.

He faced a maximum life sentence.

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The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

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