Suspected ISIS Sympathizer Gets 5 Years In Prison

DETROIT, MI — A suspected ISIS supporter was sentenced to five years in federal prison Thursday after pleading guilty in federal court in Detroit to a firearms charges, the Justice Department said. Khalil Abu Rayyan, 22, of Dearborn Heights, had talked about martyrdom operations, including shooting up a 6,000-member Detroit church and killing police officers, which prosecutors said warranted a sentence above federal guidelines of 15-21 months.

Rayyan pleaded guilty to charges to making a false statement to acquire a firearm and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person in September. In handing down his sentence, U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh said initial steps into the arena of terrorism or violent crimes carry serious consequences. Prosecutors had asked for an eight-year sentence, while Todd Shanker, Rayyan’s attorney, argued for 18 months.

Rayyan, the son of immigrants from Jordan, had indicated his support for ISIS on social media and posted gruesome videos of a Jordanian fighter pilot being burned alive, beheadings of Christians in Egypt and men being thrown from high-rise buildings as a means of execution, according to court documents.The government said he posted comments about the joy he felt in watching them the videos.

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Steeh noted during the sentencing that Rayyan had downloaded an image of an “ISIS terrorist holding a severed head” on his phone, and had expressed his support for jihad in “countless other ways,” the Detroit Free Press reported. After he spoke of attacking the church and police officer, Rayyan was “practicing shooting at the firing range" with military-style weapons.

“This is not merely viewing an ISIS website,” Steeh said.

In a pre-sentencing hearing last week, Rayyan told Steeh that he “never intended to hurt anyone” and that he was an “ignorant, immature, naive kid,” but has since matured.

“My behavior caused embarrassment to myself, my family, my community and my religion,” he said.

Rayyan had been under federal surveillance since May 2015 when was taken into custody on the gun charges in February 2016 after he allegedly plotted an ISIS-inspired attack on the Greater Grace Temple in Detroit.

The FBI became aware in October 2015 that he had purchased a .22-caliber firearm from a Dearborn Heights sporting goods store and lied on a required AFT form about marijuana use. He attempted to buy another pistol from another sporting goods store a month later, but was unable to do so because of pending state marijuana charges, the government said. He subsequently admitted to federal agents that he was a habitual marijuana user during the time he purchased the pistol, the government said.

The case was investigated by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, including an undercover agent posing as a 19-year-old young Sunni Muslim. Rayyan’s defense attorney had said he had been seduced by the undercover agent and that his statements about martyrdom were braggadocious and meant to impress her.

Photo via Department of Justice