Laith Alebbini admits he tried to travel to Syria to meet with the Islamic State group, also called ISIS, but he says he only did it because he wanted to fight Syria's Bashar al-Assad and help the Syrian people.

Now, he is trying to avoid decades in prison.

Alebbini, was arrested in April 2017 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. He's been in jail ever since.

In December, the Dayton, Ohio man pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist group.

Federal prosecutors have asked U.S. District Court Judge Walter Rice for a sentence of 40 years in prison, but Alebbini and his lawyers would like his sentence to be the time he has already served.

More: Dayton man arrested at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, accused of supporting ISIS

More: Ohioan wanted to be an Islamic State suicide bomber, feds say after he pleads guilty


In a 27-page memorandum, Alebbini's lawyers called what he did a "thought crime," and said he operated under the "erroneous belief that the Islamic State were not evil terrorists."

The document explained that Alebbini, a Jordan-born U.S. legal permanent resident, became obsessed with the conflict in Syria and felt compelled to do something about going as far as applying to join the U.S. Army in 2016.

"Alebbini would not have been compelled to go to Syria if Bashar al-Assad was not murdering the Syrian people," the document states.

Alebbini came to America to follow his wife and, according to the document, the relationship quickly dissolved and he was set adrift in a foreign country. Though he eventually remarried, his lawyers said he was depressed, abusing marijuana and fell for Islamic State propaganda.

"Alebbini believed that ISIS was a power for good, effectively fighting Bashar al-Assad in Syria and laying the foundations for a 'United States of Arabia,'” the document says.

He even wanted to teach what he learned about Ameican federalism to the Islamic State, his lawyers said.

He told his family, who tried to convince him of the truth, that "if he got over to Syria and realized The Islamic State were a group of immoral cold-blooded terrorists that he would fight against them," the memorandum said.

His lawyer's called most of Alebbini's most egregious comments bragging or boasting. He once recording saying he would sign up to be a suicide bomber.

"Alebbini loves to talk," the lawyers wrote. "One shudders to think what the government would be able to do if they took every heated family argument as proof of intent to commit violence."

An expert who testified to the court said Alebbini likely would not have made it through the Islamic State vetting process and more likely would have been killed on the spot.

Alebbini admits to that he said what he did, and admits he committed a serious crime. But his lawyers say the nearly two years Allebbini has already spent in jail is enough punishment for a man with no criminal record.

"His son...was born while he was in prison," the memorandum says. "He has never held his child."

Alebbini is scheduled to be sentenced May 2.

"Alebbini is a life worth saving," his lawyers said. "He is simply not the monster the government thinks they prosecuted."

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