Moscow court convicts student for trying to join ISIS in Syria
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MOSCOW - A Moscow court on Thursday sent a 20-year-old university student to prison for 4 1/2 years for trying to join Islamic State group fighters in Syria.
The Moscow District Military Court ruled in an unusually harsh verdict that Varvara Karaulova, a student at the prestigious Moscow State University, was "preparing to join a terrorist organization." The judge rejected her pleas that she had no intention to fight in Syria.
Karaulova, a convert to Islam, insists that she fell in love with a man she met online and wanted to marry him in Syria.
In her closing argument Wednesday the student apologized to her parents for what she called a "teenage rebellion" and said she cannot forgive herself.
