Brooklyn Resident Sentenced for Funding ISIS Foreign Fighter: DOJ Report

People look at a destroyed houses near the village of Barisha after an operation by the U.S. military which targeted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy leader of ISIS, in Idlib province, Syria, on Oct. 27, 2019. (Ghaith Alsayed/AP Photo)

A citizen of Uzbekistan residing in Brooklyn was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Friday for conspiring and providing material support to the terrorist organization ISIS.

Dilkhayot Kasimov, 34, was convicted following a one-week trial in September 2019 after assisting Abdurasul Juraboev and Akhror Saidakhmetov, both of whom planned to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS back in 2015. Kasimov collected cash for the trip from co-conspirators, Abror Habibov and others, adding his contribution, and transferred $1,600 to Saidakhmetov at the John F. Kennedy International Airport.

“Kasimov is an ISIS supporter who collected and gave money to another individual to fund his travel to join the terrorist group. With this sentence, Kasimov is being held accountable for his crimes,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen in the Justice Department’s June 3 news release.

U.S. attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York said, “Today’s sentence demonstrates the significant consequences for those who help terrorist groups, including by facilitating travel of others to join ISIS.”

He added that Kasimov was part of a larger group that sought to go to Syria and join ISIS or fund others who were interested. “The Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners will continue working relentlessly to protect our country from terrorists and those who would provide support to them.”

Providing financial assistance to ISIS-inspired potential fighters comes with a stiff penalty, said Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Field Office in the DOJ report.

“As Kasimov learned today, his actions will cost him 15 years behind bars. The FBI continues to make every effort to protect Americans at home and abroad and to bring other like-minded criminals to justice,” said Driscoll.

Along with Kasimov, Juraboev and Saidakahmetov were sentenced to 15 years while Azizjon Rakhmatov was sentenced to 12.5 years imprisonment. Other defendants, Habibov and Akmal Zakirov, are awaiting their sentencing, and a seventh co-conspirator, Dilshod Khusanov, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 5.

At its peak in 2015, ISIS recruited around 30,000 fighters from at least 85 countries around the world with a network of affiliates in at least eight countries other than Syria and Iraq, which were their strongholds.

Although a majority of fighters joined in from the Middle East, there were many from the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. ISIS recruitment was a global phenomenon that gave the terrorist organization human capital to operate outside the Middle East.

In 2019, the group was finally dismantled during the administration of President Donald Trump. There was a mass surrender of ISIS fighters during the year, which culminated with the death of the leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in a U.S. raid in northern Syria.