Lirim Sylejmani, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Kosovo, has admitted guilt in a Washington D.C. court for receiving military training from ISIS, a recognized foreign terrorist group. This announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani of the Washington Field Office Counterterrorism Division.
"As the threat from terrorist groups such as ISIS persists, we will continue to work aggressively with our law enforcement partners to bring those who would seek to join and receive training from these groups to justice," stated U.S. Attorney Graves. "This prosecution demonstrates that those who seek to support terrorism will pay a heavy price."
Court documents reveal that Sylejmani received military training from ISIS between November 2015 and February 2019 in Syria. He was captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2019 and had spoken about his experiences with various media outlets.
In late 2015, Sylejmani traveled with his family to Syria to join ISIS after living in Kosovo as a naturalized U.S. citizen. After completing an intake process with ISIS, he assumed the name Abu Sulayman al-Kosovi and underwent soldier training alongside other recruits. His training included assembling and firing weapons like the AK-47 rifle and using other firearms such as PK Machine guns, M-16 rifles, and grenades.
Following his training completion over 21 days, Sylejmani was assigned to an Iraqi battalion in Mosul where he received weaponry including an AK-47 and grenades. He pledged allegiance or "bayat" to Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, then-leader of ISIS. In May 2016, he participated in frontline guard duty during the Manbij offensive but sustained injuries from shrapnel during combat with Coalition Forces.
After recovering from his injuries, Sylejmani was reassigned later in 2017 while continuing to receive payments for his services until February 2019 when he relocated with his family amidst ISIS's territorial decline.
Captured on February 27, 2019 by Coalition Forces along with his family, Sylejmani was detained at Dashisha prison before being transferred on September 15, 2020 to U.S authorities for prosecution in Washington D.C.
The case against him is based on investigations carried out by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S Attorneys Brenda J. Johnson, Steven Wasserman and Kimberly Paschall of the National Security Section along with Trial Attorney Jennifer Levy of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.