DETROIT — On Thursday, June 15, a Dearborn resident was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison after having been convicted at trial earlier this year on charges of providing and conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and attending an ISIS training camp.

Prosecutors sought a 35-year sentence, which is more than three times as long as the sentence sought by lawyers for Ibraheem Musaibli, who said he should have been sentenced to the mandatory minimum 10 years in prison. Musaibli, 33, has been jailed since 2018 when he was captured on a Syrian battlefield, making him one of a small group of foreign fighters brought back from overseas to face terrorism charges in the U.S.

A 14-year sentence is slightly longer than average for terrorism cases in the U.S. At least 198 people have been convicted of crimes related to ISIS and sentenced to an average of 13.3 years in prison, according to data compiled by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

Musaibli was sentenced five months after jurors convicted him of providing material support to a terrorist group. Jurors spent about four hours deliberating after a nine-day trial in January before convicting Musaibli of all three charges against him. That includes conspiring to provide material support and receiving military-type training from ISIS. The two terrorism-related charges could have sent him to prison for 50 years.

The sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew G. Olsen, U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison of the Eastern District of Michigan and James A. Tarasca, special agent in charge of the Detroit office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Musaibli was sentenced by United States District Judge David M. Lawson.

Musaibli is among at least 27 Americans who have been captured alive in Syria and Iraq in recent years. He and at least nine others have been charged with terrorism crimes since 2020 and are accused of supporting ISIS.

Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, a Michigan resident, has been convicted of being an ISIS terrorist who went to Syria in 2015 to join the group. – File photo

Judge  Lawson also ordered Musaibli to serve 10 years of supervised release.

Musaibli is among at least 27 Americans who have been captured alive in Syria and Iraq in recent years. He and at least nine others have been charged with terrorism crimes since 2020 and are accused of supporting ISIS.

Musaibli, a natural-born U.S. citizen, was convicted on charges of providing and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and attending an ISIS training camp.

A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Michigan said evidence presented during the trial established that Musaibli, born in Detroit, began looking into ISIS while in Michigan in 2015. He then traveled to Yemen in April 2015 and continued to research ISIS — including downloading ISIS propaganda and an ISIS book on how to get into Syria.

From Yemen, he traveled to Syria in the fall of 2015, where he attended an ISIS-run religious training camp before undergoing ISIS military training where he learned to shoot, carry and otherwise handle an AK-47 assault rifle. Upon graduation from the ISIS military training camp, Musaibli swore allegiance to ISIS and its leader.

Musaibli remained with ISIS for more than two and a half years. During that time, he fought for ISIS against the United States and its allies, where he was wounded in battle. He was eventually apprehended by Syrian Democratic Forces in 2018, turned over to the FBI and flown back to the United States to face terrorism charges.

“This defendant chose to join a brutal, foreign terrorist organization and then to fight against the United States,” Ison said. “For his betrayal of our nation and his fellow citizens, he is deserving of a long sentence.”

Musaibli was not a leader or a committed radical. Instead, he was manipulated by propaganda into traveling to Syria to help women and children. He sought (ISIS) charity and, rather than asking what he could do for (ISIS), asked what (ISIS) could do for him.– Musaibli’s lawyer James Gerometta

“This case is a reminder of the danger posed by those who travel overseas to join forces with terrorist groups,” Tarasca said. “The sentence imposed on Mr. Musaibli is a clear reminder to others of the consequences of providing material support to ISIS or any foreign terrorist organization.”

In requesting a 10-year sentence, Musaibli’s lawyers characterized him as a man with cognitive and developmental challenges who failed to live up to his ideal as that of a committed Muslim man.

Musaibli was not a leader or a committed radical, his lawyers argued. Instead, he “was manipulated by propaganda into traveling to Syria to help women and children,” defense lawyer James Gerometta wrote.

“Mr. Musaibli saw himself as a failure… Like many young men looking for redemption, he thought heroic glory on the battlefield would earn him the respect of his family and others,” Gerometta said in a court filing.

“Rather than a committed radical, he ran from fights and violence,” the lawyer wrote. “He sought (ISIS) charity and, rather than asking what he could do for (ISIS), asked what (ISIS) could do for him. Similarly, even when praising (ISIS) in some communications, he condemned attacks on civilians; those were not the true mujahedeen and such attacks were sinful.

“He has, and always will be, susceptible to manipulation and easily influenced,” Gerometta added.

Musaibli’s family mounted an attempt to minimize his prison sentence. His parents, siblings, wife and ex-wife — who prosecutors say was abandoned when he left to join ISIS — described the father of four as a kind, loving, charitable, peaceful man who as a child was so delicate he would cry at the sight of violence.

“My husband (Ibraheem), was and still is a good-hearted and tender man,” wife Arzaq Saleh wrote to the judge. “My life with him was (like) a dream, because it was short, but like paradise.”