A New York City man was sentenced to 27 years in prison Friday for traveling to the Middle East in a failed bid to join al-Qaida and avenge abuse of Muslims by killing American troops.
“I wish I had not gone down that path,” Betim Kaziu told U.S. District Judge John Gleason before hearing the sentence in federal court in Brooklyn. “I completely regret what I did in that phase of my life.”
But Gleason said it was first time he’d hear the defendant express remorse — and that it wasn’t convincing.
“You grew up in Brooklyn and you decided to murder your own country’s soldiers,” Gleason said. “There’s still an element of defiance in you. … You’re still way too proud of becoming a jihadist.”
