THE family of a former Haverstock schoolboy say they are “sad to be rejoicing” after he was sentenced to nine years for training with a militant organisation.

Mahdi Hashi, who also went to Rhyl School in his childhood and lived in Gilbey’s Yard in Chalk Farm, accepted a plea bargain after being captured in east Africa and later flown back to the United States in November 2012.

The 26-year-old, who had his British citizenship controversially revoked shortly before his arrest in Djibouti, was on Friday convicted of “providing material support” to Al Shabaab in Somalia between 2009 and 2012. 

Al Shabaab has claimed responsibility for dozens of terrorist bomb attacks that have claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

In a statement, Mr Hashi’s family said: “We are thankful the judge tried to understand the context of the case in passing down his sentence. At the same time, it is sad to be rejoicing for a nine-year sentence, especially after all the abuses Mahdi had to go through.”

Mr Hashi has been held in solitary confinement in New York in a high security prison since November 2012 and, according to court documents, had been subjected to physical and mental threats while held in a prison cell in Djibouti, east Africa.

It has also emerged this week that he was held for three months in a cell with five other “near-naked men” without a change of clothes or mattress and in searing desert-like temperatures. He was made to watch his co-defendants “hung upside down and beaten with computer cables” and had to “drink from the ­toilet as the only means of sustaining themselves”, ac­cording to court documents.

His supporters are celebrating the sentence, given that the original charges against him included accusations that he was part of a group planning chemical warfare against the US and an Al Shabaab elite suicide bomber training programme. Prosecutors were originally aiming for a life sentence of at least 30 years.

But District Judge Gleeson, according to a Reuters court report, described Mr Hashi’s case as “complicated”, and had given some credibility to Mr Hashi’s claim he joined the group “not to engage in violent attacks but because he thought it could restore peace to war-torn Somalia”.

He is reported as saying in his summing up: “I believe you believe this organisation you joined was dramatically different than what you thought or hoped it would be.” 

A statement from the US Attorney Anthony Capers said that Mr Hashi was part of a group of “foreign fighters” who were recruited as part of a propaganda drive to “emphasise that the Somalia conflict was part of a global jihad aimed at creating an Islamic cali­phate”, adding: “Today’s sentence should serve as a warning to others who offer support to terrorist groups that pose a threat to the United States and our allies around the world.”

Three years before his arrest, Mr Hashi went public with allegations that MI5 had approached him along with friends at Kentish Town Community Centre to spy on Camden Muslims. When he refused, he was “har­assed”, he claimed at the time, forcing him to leave the country. His British citizenship was revoked shortly before his arrest in east Africa in a move that has been criticised by leading human rights lawyer Helena Kennedy QC, who has represented him in the British immigration courts. 

Mr Hashi will be deported back to Somalia after he sees out his nine-year sentence – he has served three already – but the campaign group Cage says he should be allowed to return to Camden.