An Arizona mann has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for conspiring to support the Islamic State for his role in planning a May 2015 shooting in Texas.
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, 45, was also placed on lifetime supervised release during a hearing in federal court in Phoenix for his role in the May 3, 2015 Islamic State-inspired attack at a cartoon exhibition in Garland, Texas, featuring images of the Prophet Mohammed.
Two co-conspirators, Kareem's former roommates, were killed at the event in a shootout with police.
Kareem, a moving company owner, was convicted in March 2016 on all five terror-related charges by a jury. Prosecutors had sought a 50-year sentence, while his lawyer asked for a six-year sentence.
Kareem, his hands and feet shackled and clad in prison orange, maintained his innocence during the sentencing before US District Court Judge Susan Bolton, as he did throughout his three-week trial.
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"I had nothing to do with this," he told the court, adding in a statement read by his lawyer that he felt the prosecution was more about his Muslim faith than his involvement. Kareem converted seven years ago.
"I feel that I have been charged stereotypically," the statement said.
The original indictment said Kareem supplied the two gunmen with arms and helped them prepare for the attack. He was later accused of supporting the Islamic State in social media posts, researching travel to the Middle East to train with terrorists and seeking to make explosives that could be used during the Super Bowl.
