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A naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded responsible to receiving army coaching from the Islamic State in Syria was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in federal jail.
Lirim Sylejmani, 49, who was born in Kosovo and moved to Chicago about 25 years in the past, engaged in at the least one battle in opposition to U.S.-led coalition forces after he entered Syria a decade in the past, based on prosecutors.
U.S. District Choose Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., handed down Sylejmani’s jail sentence, which will probably be adopted by a lifetime of supervised launch.
Sylejmani pleaded responsible in December to 1 depend of receiving army coaching from a international terrorist group.
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A lady walks within the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province, the place tens of hundreds of principally girls and youngsters linked to the Islamic State group have been residing for years, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP)
“This defendant will spend a decade in jail enthusiastic about the betrayal to this nation,” wrote the interim U.S. lawyer for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, additionally a former Fox Information host.
“Anybody pondering that ISIS is the reply to their questions, greatest suppose once more,” she continued. “We’ll go to any lengths to root out subversive people who need to overthrow the federal government and hurt its residents.”
In November 2015, Sylejmani and his household flew to Turkey earlier than crossing the border into Syria, the place he acquired coaching with different ISIS recruits till February 2019, when he was captured along with his household by Syrian forces in Baghouz, Syria, based on prosecutors.
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This can be a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Picture)
His army coaching included instruction on how you can assemble and hearth an AK-47 rifle, in addition to how you can use a PK Machine gun, M-16 rifle and grenades.
Sylejmani was additionally as soon as injured in a battle with Syrian forces in June 2016.
Prosecutors mentioned Sylejmani, who adopted the identify Abu Sulayman al-Kosovi, pledged “bayat,” or allegiance, to ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and to the ISIS group in entrance of an Iraqi ISIS member.
He was transferred to the U.S. in September 2020 to face felony expenses in Washington, D.C.
Interim U.S. Legal professional Jeanine Pirro mentioned: “Anybody pondering that ISIS is the reply to their questions, greatest suppose once more.” (Drew ANGERER / AFP)
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“The conduct is way over a single, impulsive act. He selected to jeopardize the protection of his household by bringing them to a war-torn nation to hitch and take up arms for ISIS,” prosecutors wrote.
Sylejmani’s attorneys declare he isn’t a “dedicated jihadist” and doesn’t espouse violence.
“He’s guilt-ridden for his actions and the hurt he has visited on his household, who stay detained in a refugee camp in Syria residing underneath horrible situations,” his legal professionals wrote. “He needs solely to finish his time and discover his spouse and youngsters, so he can dwell a mean law-abiding life with them.”
