US citizen who joined Islamic State in Syria is sentenced to 10 years in prison
June 2, 2025
A naturalized U.S. citizen who pleaded guilty to receiving military training from the Islamic State group has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Prosecutors say 49-year-old Lirim Sylejmani engaged in at least one battle against U.S.-led forces after he entered Syria in 2015. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington, D.C., on Monday imposed Sylejmani’s prison sentence followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Sylejmani, who was born in Kosovo and moved to Chicago roughly 25 years ago, pleaded guilty last December to one count of receiving military training from a foreign terrorist organization.