A former ISU student charged with felony forgery during the summer was sentenced to probation Monday.

Mazen Abdelbasir, who was a freshman in pre-architecture at the time of his arrest, entered a plea of guilty Aug. 8 to a charge of forgery involving credit cards, a Class D felony carrying a penalty of up to $7,500 in fines and five years in prison. Abdelbasir was given a suspended five-year prison sentence subject to successful completion of two years of probation and payment of restitution worth nearly $3,000 and all court costs.

Abdelbasir charged almost $3,000 worth of merchandise to three Younkers customers’ credit cards during a nine-day period while employed at Younkers last summer. He was arrested June 3 after Younkers’ loss-prevention officers discovered the theft at the department store’s North Grand Mall location.

On Aug. 17, during pretrial release, Abdelbasir was allowed by District Court Judge Timothy Finn to travel out of the state to help his parents move.

Abdelbasir is currently unemployed and taking 15 credit hours at Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, said Paul Rounds, Abdelbasir’s attorney. Rounds said Abdelbasir hopes to finish his semester in Iowa and then join his parents in Arizona.

Abdelbasir asked for a deferred judgment, citing no prior criminal history and a nonviolent crime, but District Court Judge Michael Moon denied his request.

“I’m not going to send you to prison, let’s get that off the table. That has to do with age and lack of prior involvement with the justice system,” Moon said to Abdelbasir. “And I’m not inclined to grant a deferred judgment. You made a mistake, then another mistake and another mistake, all over an eight- to 10-day period.”

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