‘It just sounded very nice’: US indicts Chicago man who shouldered a rifle for IS
Lirim Sylejmani claimed the caliphate was not what he expected
Federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia this week unsealed charges against a Kosovo-born US citizen who admittedly joined the Islamic State in Syria and was captured in the waning days of the multinational war against the jihadi group.
Lirim Sylejmani, previously a resident of Chicago, was held in a prison run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the city of Hasakah for more than a year before being transferred to the United States by the FBI.
Prosecutors have charged Sylejmani with providing material support to the Islamic State, and receiving training from the terrorist group.
“The defendant is a US citizen who abandoned the country that welcomed him to join ISIS in Syria,” Acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin said, according to a Department of Justice press release. “He will now be held accountable for his actions in an American courtroom.” The Islamic State is often abbreviated as IS or ISIS.
