15-year sentence for Brooklyn ISIS ally
An Uzbekistan citizen living in Brooklyn was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for offering financial support in American dollars to the terrorist group ISIS.
Dilkhayot Kasimov, 34, was convicted for driving to Kennedy Airport in February 2015 with $1,600 cash that he handed directly to an aspiring teen terrorist to cover the youth’s travel and weapons expenses, officials said.
The money was collected from a number of local pro-ISIS figures and delivered by Kasimov during a brief exchange.
“Kasimov was part of a group of individuals who sought to travel to Syria to join ISIS or fund others who sought to become foreign fighters for ISIS,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in Brooklyn.
The exchange between Kasimov and Akhror Saidakhmetov was captured on video inside Terminal 7 at the Queens airport, and the 19-year-old suspect was arrested before he could board a flight to Istanbul and join the terrorist cause, authorities said.
Court papers recounted how Kasimov and a co-conspirator referred to the would-be terrorist as “little brother.”
Kasimov was also eager to meet with Saidakhmetov in person: “I actually would like to see those people myself, the people who are leaving,” the court documents say.
A government sentencing memorandum noted how Kasimov “had discussed his interest in living in the Islamic State and his knowledge of individuals who had gone to fight and die for ISIS in Syria.”
Kasimov was convicted in September 2019 for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Two of Kasimov’s co-conspirators, Abdurasul Juraboev and Saidakhmetov, were also sentenced to 15 years in prison while a third was hit with a 12½ year term.
Three other suspects in the case await sentencing dates.