Prison time reduced for Oakland man sentenced for terrorism charges

An East Bay man serving prison time for talking about wanting to kill some 10,000 Bay Area residents may get out of prison early.

NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has been following the case since 2017. That’s when Berkeley High School grad Amer Al-Haggagi was indicted on terrorism charges.

Prosecutors said he was using social media to support ISIS.

He pled guilty to the charges and in 2019, was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison.

But on Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit ruled the judge in Al-Haggagi’s case abused his discretion in applying a terrorism enhancement to the sentence.

The Ninth Circuit reduced his sentence to 18 months.

His lawyer said the court did the right thing.

“What he did here was talk about campaigns of terror,” said attorney Mary McNamara. “They are atrocious things he actually said, but he didn’t carry out any of them.”

The ruling means Al-Haggagi could be released by this summer.

In a court document, federal prosecutors told the court the right decision was handed down in 2019 and believe Al-Haggagi should stay behind bars to “protect the public from further crimes.”

Source: NBC Bay Area