US citizen who fought for ISIS in Syria sentenced to 10 years in prison

A naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State in Syria was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in federal prison.

Lirim Sylejmani, 49, who was born in Kosovo and moved to Chicago about 25 years ago, engaged in at least one battle against U.S.-led coalition forces after he entered Syria a decade ago, according to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., handed down Sylejmani’s prison sentence, which will be followed by a lifetime of supervised release.

Sylejmani pleaded guilty in December to one count of receiving military training from a foreign terrorist organization.

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A woman walks in the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria’s Hasakeh province, where tens of thousands of mostly women and children linked to the Islamic State group have been living for years, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP)

“This defendant will spend a decade in prison thinking about the betrayal to this country,” wrote the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, also a former Fox News host.

“Anyone thinking that ISIS is the answer to their questions, best think again,” she continued. “We will go to any lengths to root out subversive individuals who want to overthrow the government and harm its citizens.”

In November 2015, Sylejmani and his family flew to Turkey before crossing the border into Syria, where he received training with other ISIS recruits until February 2019, when he was captured with his family by Syrian forces in Baghouz, Syria, according to prosecutors.

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This is a locator map for Syria with its capital, Damascus. (AP Photo)

His 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.

Sylejmani was also once injured in a battle with Syrian forces in June 2016.

Prosecutors said Sylejmani, who adopted the name Abu Sulayman al-Kosovi, pledged “bayat,” or allegiance, to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and to the ISIS organization in front of an Iraqi ISIS member.

He was transferred to the U.S. in September 2020 to face criminal charges in Washington, D.C.

Interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said: “Anyone thinking that ISIS is the answer to their questions, best think again.” (Drew ANGERER / AFP)

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“The conduct is far more than a single, impulsive act. He chose to jeopardize the safety of his family by bringing them to a war-torn country to join and take up arms for ISIS,” prosecutors wrote.

Sylejmani’s attorneys claim he is not a “committed jihadist” and does not espouse violence.

“He is guilt-ridden for his actions and the harm he has visited on his family, who remain detained in a refugee camp in Syria living under terrible conditions,” his lawyers wrote. “He wishes only to complete his time and find his wife and children, so he can live an average law-abiding life with them.”