CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has given the maximum available 15-year prison sentence to a suburban Chicago man convicted of seeking to join an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria, telling him he made the choice “to become a villain” by joining terrorists.

Lawyers for Abdella Ahmad Tounisi (too-NEE’-see) argued Thursday at his sentencing in Chicago that the 23-year-old was motivated foremost, not by extremist ideology, but to help Syrians by fighting Bashar Assad’s repressive regime. They asked for a seven-year sentence.

But Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan (YAY’-gee-yahn) rejected that. He said the group that the Aurora, Illinois, man sought to join, Jabhat al-Nusra, was affiliated with those “who called for the destruction of the U.S.” Addressing Tounisi directly, he told him “there are no free passes when it comes to collusion with terrorists.”

The judge added he would have imposed a sentence beyond the statutory 15-year maximum if he could have.