US citizen who fought for ISIS sentenced to prison
A naturalized U.S. citizen was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Syria.
In a Monday press release, the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia explained that 49-year-old Lirim Sylejmani received military training from ISIS and participated in 'at least one battle with U.S.-led coalition forces' in Syria.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Sylejmani to 10 years in federal prison and a lifetime of supervised relief. Monday's press release noted that Sylejmani pleaded guilty in December to receiving military training from a designated foreign terrorist organization.
'This defendant will spend a decade in prison thinking about the betrayal to this country,' U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said. 'Anyone thinking that ISIS is the answer to their questions, best think again. We will go to any lengths to root out subversive individuals who want to overthrow the government and harm its citizens.'
Monday's press release cited court documents that show Sylejmani was trained by ISIS in Syria from November of 2015 through February of 2019.
READ MORE: Fmr. Nat'l Guard member charged for planning mass shooting at US military base for ISIS
'In November 2015, Sylejmani, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Kosovo, traveled to Syria with his family to join ISIS. After entering Syria, Sylejmani completed his ISIS intake process,' the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia stated. 'He adopted the name Abu Sulayman al-Kosovi and trained to be a soldier with other ISIS recruits. Sylejmani's military training included instruction on how to assemble and fire an AK-47 rifle, as well as how to use a PK Machine gun, M-16 rifle and grenades.'
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia explained that following 21 days of military training, Sylejmani was assigned to an ISIS battalion in Iraq, was given 'an AK-47, four AK-47 magazines, a belt to hold the magazines and two grenades, and pledged allegiance to ISIS. The U.S. Attorney's office added that Sylejmani was paid by ISIS for his services.
'In May 2016, the defendant reported for ribat (guard) duty on the front line of the Manbij offensive. The defendant brought his gun belt, AK-47 and magazines to his ribat assignment,' the press release stated. 'During a battle with Coalition Forces he was hit with shrapnel in his legs.'
According to Monday's press release, Sylejmani and his family were captured by Coalition Forces in February of 2019, and the 49-year-old was transferred to U.S. custody in September of 2020 to face criminal charges.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Kilmar Ábrego García returned from El Salvador to face criminal charges in US
Kilmar Ábrego García, the man whom the Donald Trump administration mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, returned to the US on Friday to face criminal charges. In a press briefing on Friday, the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, said that a federal grand jury in Tennessee had indicted Ábrego García on counts of illegally smuggling undocumented people as well as of conspiracy to commit that crime. 'Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to our country,' Bondi said of Ábrego García. She thanked the Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, 'for agreeing to return him to our country to face these very serious charges'. 'This is what American justice looks like upon completion of his sentence,' Bondi added. Ábrego García – a 29-year-old Salvadorian whose wife and young child in Maryland are US citizens – appeared in federal court in Nashville on Friday evening. His arraignment was set for 13 June, when he will enter a plea, according to local media reports. Until then, he will remain in federal custody. In a statement to the Hill on Friday, Ábrego García's lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg accused the Trump administration of having 'disappeared' his client 'to a foreign prison in violation of a court order'. 'Now, after months of delay and secrecy, they're bringing him back, not to correct their error but to prosecute him,' he added. Sandoval-Moshenberg also said: 'This shows that they were playing games with the court all along. Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you're punished – not after.' Sandoval-Moshenberg said the White House's treatment of his client was 'an abuse of power, not justice'. He called on Ábrego García to face the same immigration judge who had previously granted him a federal protection order against deportation to El Salvador 'to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent' there. That, Sandoval-Moshenberg argued, 'is the ordinary manner of doing things' – and he said that is what the US supreme court had ordered in April. Bondi on Friday maintained that federal grand jurors found that Ábrego García 'has played a significant role' in an abusive smuggling ring that had operated for nearly a decade. The attorney general added that if convicted, Ábrego García would be deported to El Salvador after completing his sentence in the US. Officials on Friday portrayed the indictment of Ábrego García by a grand jury in Tennessee as vindication of their approach to immigration enforcement. 'The man has a horrible past and I could see a decision being made, bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that it had been the justice department that decided to bring Ábrego García back. According to the indictment, Ábrego García worked with at least five co-conspirators to bring immigrants to the United States illegally, and then transported them from the US-Mexico border to other destinations in the country. Ábrego García often picked up immigrants in Houston, and made more than 100 trips between Texas and Maryland from 2016 to 2025, the indictment says. The indictment also alleges Ábrego García transported firearms and drugs. According to the indictment, one of his co-conspirators belonging to the same ring was involved in the transportation of immigrants whose tractor-trailer overturned in Mexico in 2021, resulting in 50 deaths. Sandoval-Moshenberg called the criminal charges 'fantastical' and a 'kitchen sink' of allegations. 'This is all based on the statements of individuals who are currently either facing prosecution or in federal prison,' he said. 'I want to know what they offered those people.' Ábrego García entered the US without permission around 2011 while fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. Despite the judicial order meant to prevent his deportation to El Salvador, on 15 March, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials deported him to El Salvador after arresting him in Maryland. He was held in the so-called Center for Terrorism Confinement, a controversial mega-prison better known as Cecot. The Trump administration subsequently admitted that Ábrego García's deportation was an 'administrative error'. But it has repeatedly cast him as a MS-13 gang member on television – a claim which his wife, a US citizen, and his attorneys staunchly reject. Ábrego García also had no criminal record in the US before the indictment announced on Friday, according to court documents. On 4 April, federal judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to 'facilitate and effectuate' Ábrego García's return from El Salvador after his family filed a lawsuit in response to his deportation. The supreme court unanimously upheld Xinis's order a week later. In an unsigned decision, the court said that Xinis's decision 'properly requires the government to 'facilitate' Ábrego García's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador'. A Friday statement from the US senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said the Trump administration had 'finally relented' to his demand to afford Ábrego due process. 'This is not about the man,' said Van Hollen, who visited Ábrego García in El Salvador in April. 'It's about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all.' Bukele wrote on X, in part, that he would not refuse the Trump administration's request for 'the return of a gang member to face charges'. Reuters contributed to this report
3 hours ago
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, newly returned to US, appears in court on charges of trafficking migrants
Mistakenly deported Salvadoran native Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in a Tennessee courtroom Friday, hours after he was brought back to the United States to face criminal charges for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. More than two months after the Trump administration admitted it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador, a federal grand jury has indicted him for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the United States. A two-count indictment, which was filed under seal in federal court in Tennessee last month and unsealed Friday, alleges Abrego Garcia, 29, participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country. The return of Abrego Garcia from his native El Salvador follows a series of court battles in which the Trump administration repeatedly said it was unable to bring him back, drawing the country toward the brink of a constitutional crisis when the administration failed to heed the Supreme Court's order to facilitate his return. He made his initial court appearance Friday evening in the Middle District of Tennessee, answering "Yes, I understand" in Spanish when U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes asked him if he understood the charges against him. Judge Homes set a hearing for June 13, where Abrego Garcia will be arraigned on charges and the judge will take up the government's motion to hold him in pre-trial detention on the grounds that he "poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight" He will remain in federal custody in Tennessee pending next week's hearing. "If convicted at trial, the defendant faces a maximum punishment of 10 years' imprisonment for 'each alien' he transported," said the government's motion for detention, which also contained an allegation -- not included in the indictment -- that one of Abrego Garcia's co-conspirators told authorities that Abrego Garcia participated in the murder of a rival gang member's mother in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia's attorney, in an online press briefing, called the charges against his client "an abuse of power." "They'll stop at nothing at all -- even some of the most preposterous charges imaginable -- just to avoid admitting that they made a mistake, which is what everyone knows happened in this case," said attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg. "Mr. Garcia is going to be vigorously defending the charges against him," the attorney said. The decision to pursue the indictment against Abrego Garcia led to the abrupt departure of Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, sources briefed on Schrader's decision told ABC News. Schrader's resignation was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons, the sources said. Schrader, who spent 15 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville and was most recently the chief of the criminal division, declined to comment when contacted by ABC News. The alleged conspiracy spanned nearly a decade and involved the domestic transport of thousands of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars, according to the indictment. Abrego Garcia is alleged to have participated in more than 100 such trips, according to the indictment. Among those allegedly transported were members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, sources familiar with the investigation said. Abrego Garcia is the only member of the alleged conspiracy charged in the indictment. Attorney General Pam Bondi, at a Friday afternoon press conference, thanked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for "agreeing to return Abrego Garcia to the United States." "Our government presented El Salvador with an arrest warrant and they agreed to return him to our country," Bondi said. Bondi said that if Abrego Garcia is convicted of the charges, upon the completion of his sentence he will be deported back to his home country of El Salvador. "The grand jury found that over the past nine years, Abrego Garcia has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring," Bondi said. "They found this was his full time job, not a contractor. He was a smuggler of humans and children and women. He made over 100 trips, the grand jury found, smuggling people throughout our country." In a statement to ABC News, Abrego Garcia's attorney said that he's going to keep fighting to ensure Abrego Garcia receives a fair trial. "From the beginning, this case has made one thing painfully clear: The government had the power to bring him back at any time. Instead, they chose to play games with the court and with a man's life," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. "We're not just fighting for Kilmar -- we're fighting to ensure due process rights are protected for everyone. Because tomorrow, this could be any one of us -- if we let power go unchecked, if we ignore our Constitution." Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution -- after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13. His wife and attorneys deny that he is an MS-13 member. The Trump administration has acknowledged in court filings that Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador in March was in error, because it violated a U.S. immigration court order in 2019 that shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation to his native country, according to immigration court records. An immigration judge had determined that Abrego Garcia would likely face persecution there by local gangs that had allegedly terrorized him and his family. The administration argued, however, that Abrego Garcia should not be returned to the U.S. because he is a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a claim his family and attorneys have denied. In recent weeks, Trump administration officials have been publicizing Abrego Garcia's interactions with police over the years, despite a lack of corresponding criminal charges. After Abrego Garcia's family filed a lawsuit over his deportation, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that ruling on April 10. Abrego Garcia was initially sent to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison but was believed to have later been transferred to a different facility in the country. The criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April as federal authorities began scrutinizing the circumstances of a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, according to the sources. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told police they had been working construction in Missouri. According to body camera footage of the 2022 traffic stop, the Tennessee troopers -- after questioning Abrego Garcia -- discussed among themselves their suspicions that Abrego Garcia might be transporting people for money because nine people were traveling without luggage, but Abrego Garcia was not ticketed or charged. The officers ultimately allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with just a warning about an expired driver's license, according to a report about the stop released last month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Asked what circumstances have changed since Abrego Garcia was not taken in custody during that traffic stop in Tennessee, Bondi replied, "What has changed is Donald Trump is now president of the United States, and our borders are again secure, and thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Abrego Garcia -- this investigation continued with actually amazing police work, and we were able to track this case and stop this international smuggling ring from continuing." Asked by ABC News' Pierre Thomas asked whether this should be seen as resolving the separate civil case in Maryland in which a federal judge ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, "There's a big difference between what the state of play was before the indictment and after the indictment. And so the reason why he is back and was returned was because an arrest warrant which was presented to the government and in El Salvador. So there's, there's a big difference there as far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot. I would think so, but we don't know about this. He just landed today." As ABC News first reported last month, the Justice Department had been quietly investigating the Tenessee traffic stop. As part of the probe, federal agents in late April visited a federal prison in Talladega, Alabama to question Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, a convicted felon who was the registered owner of the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving when stopped on Interstate 40 east of Nashville, sources previously told ABC News. Hernandez-Reyes was not present at the traffic stop. Hernandez-Reyes, 38, is currently serving a 30-month sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a prior felony conviction for illegal transportation of aliens. After being granted limited immunity, Hernandez-Reyes allegedly told investigators that he previously operated a "taxi service" based in Baltimore. He claimed to have met Abrego Garcia around 2015 and claimed to have hired him on multiple occasions to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to various locations in the United States, sources told ABC News. When details of the Tennessee traffic stop were first publicized, Abrego Garcia's wife said her husband sometimes transported groups of fellow construction workers between job sites. "Unfortunately, Kilmar is currently imprisoned without contact with the outside world, which means he cannot respond to the claims," Jennifer Vasquez Sura said in mid-April. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who flew to El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia shortly after his deportation, said Friday that the Trump administration had "relented" regarding his return. "After months of ignoring our Constitution, it seems the Trump Admin has relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and due process for Kilmar Abrego Garcia," Van Hollen posted on X. "This has never been about the man -- it's about his constitutional rights & the rights of all." Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager in 2012, according to court records. He had been living in Maryland for the past 13 years, and married Vasquez Sura, a U.S. citizen, in 2019. The couple has one child together.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Man sentenced for string of armed robberies targeting Trinidad construction workers
WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — A D.C. man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for a series of armed robberies that prosecutors said targeted construction workers in the Trinidad neighborhood. The U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) for the District of Columbia said that Franco Rawlings Jr., 24, was charged with two counts of armed robbery, one count of robbery and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty in August 2024 to the charges. Fairfax County police searching for 3 involved in burglary, attempted burglary Court documents said that Rawlings and a co-conspirator worked together to rob Hispanic construction workers (whom they called 'Migos' in their texts) at gunpoint. According to evidence, on April 18, 2023, Rawlings approached a welder who was working at a home in the 1400 block of Montello Ave., NE, pointed a gun at him and demanded money. He stole the victim's wallet, which had $700 inside. On May 30, 2023, Rawlings and the co-conspirator approached two victims installing a deck in the 1300 block of Montello Ave. NE. They 'forced the victims into the basement, then to the ground at gunpoint.' The pair robbed the victims and then left. On June 27, 2023, Rawlings and the co-conspirator once again approached construction workers in Northeast D.C. Prosecutors said that they confronted three workers who were remodeling a home in the 1100 block of Owen Pl. NE. Rawlings was armed with a gun and ordered the victims to raise their hands. The duo stole money from the victims before escaping. DC Public Schools to ban cell phone use starting in 2025-26 school year One day later, on June 28, 2023, officers with the Metropolitan Police Department arrested Rawlings. They found a loaded handgun and clothing matching the clothing from surveillance footage during the robberies at his home. Rawlings has been in custody since then. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
