Dearborn Man Supports ISIS, Attends Terror Training Camp: Feds

DEARBORN, MI — A Dearborn man could spend up to 50 years in prison for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and attending an ISIS training camp.

Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 32, was convicted Monday after a 9-day trial conducted before United States District Judge David M. Lawson in Detroit, according to federal officials.

The jury rendered their guilty verdict after deliberated for less than 4 hours, officials said. Musaibli will be sentenced on May 11. He faces a statutory maximum penalty of 50 years in prison.

"Ibraheem Musaibli traveled halfway around the world and joined a vicious, brutal, and violent terrorist organization known—and proud of—its barbaric acts of terror," U.S. Attorney Dawn Ison said. "Today's verdicts highlights the dedication of this office, along with our law enforcement partners, in pursuing anyone who poses a danger to the United States—no matter where they are located."

Officials said Musaibli, who was born in Detroit, began looking into ISIS in 2015 and traveled to Yemen later that year to further research ISIS. He downloaded ISIS propaganda and an ISIS book on how to get into Syria, officials said.

Once in Yemen, Musaibli traveled to Syria in the fall of 2015 and attended an ISIS-run religious training camp before undergoing ISIS military training, which taught him how to shoot, carry, and handle an AK-47 assault rifle, officials said.

After graduating from the ISIS military training camp, Musaibli swore allegiance to ISIS and its leader, officials said.

He remained with ISIS for over two and a half years before he was eventually caught by Syrian Democratic Forces in 2018 and turned over to the FBI, officials said. He was then flown back to the U.S. to face terrorism charges.

"This defendant willingly traveled to Syria, joined ISIS, and attended a terrorist training camp," Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office James A. Tarasca said. "Today’s verdict demonstrates to anyone who would seek to contribute to ISIS’s terrorist activities that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force will be unwavering in its mission to protect the American people by identifying, disrupting, and bringing them to justice."