A dual U.S.-Bosnian citizen joined the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in 2014 and discussed jihad and shooting at airplanes with co-conspirators, a federal court in Kentucky ruled in a judgment of conviction Tuesday.
The court — sitting in Bowling Green—convicted Mirsad Hariz Adem Ramic, 34, a Kentuckian, of “providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and receiving military-type training from ISIS,” according to a Wednesday press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Prosecutors presented evidence during Ramic’s trial that he and two co-conspirators left the U.S. Jun. 3, 2014 and arrived in Istanbul, Türkiye, via separate flights, the DOJ’s press release revealed. The threesome reportedly then changed their initial purchased travel plans, flew to Gaziantep near Türkiye’s border with Syria, and then crossed into Syria where they joined ISIS.
Ramic received military-type training from an ISIS training camp, joined an ISIS unit comprising mostly Bosnian foreign fighters, and fought for ISIS in an offensive in Kobane, Syria, the prosecutors reportedly told the court. (RELATED: Feds Arrest Russian Nationals With Suspected ISIS Ties In Major Sting Operation)
Jury Convicts Kentucky Man of Multiple Terrorism Charges
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— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) June 12, 2024
“A photograph of Ramic, posted on social media, depicted him, among other things, wearing camouflage clothing and standing in front of a truck outfitted with an anti-aircraft gun and the ISIS flag,” the press release stated.
Ramic and his co-conspirators also “discussed, among other things, his use of an anti-aircraft weapon to shoot at planes” and ” jihad, martyrdom and fighting for ISIS,” according to the press release.
Eventually deported to the U.S. from Türkiye, Ramic has been in federal custody since Dec. 2021, the DOJ said.
Ramic, due to receive sentencing Sep. 5, may be imprisoned for 50 years at most and be under a potentially lifelong supervised release afterward, according to the DOJ. He may also pay a fine of $750,000.
ISIS remains a “real” and “continuing” threat, Ian McCary, the U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS (D-ISIS), said at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Mar. 21. He was speaking on the fifth anniversary of the fall of the terror group’s caliphate Mar. 23, 2019. The nature of the threat is “evolving and increasingly diffuse” as ISIS affiliates have cropped up in Afghanistan and Sub-Saharan Africa, he added.
The U.S. was supporting the D-ISIS’s efforts to counter the threat by pledging financial support toward civilian counterterrorism capacity-building in sub-Saharan Africa, McCary said.
D-ISIS also has invested billions of dollars towards making the liberated areas in Iraq and Syria stable over the past five years, he added.
Reports have emerged of U.S. authorities arresting individuals in the U.S. who are suspected of links with ISIS and other terrorist groups.
The number of illegal immigrants suspected of links with terrorist organizations reportedly spiked by over 2,500% since 2021.
