A citizen of Uzbekistan and resident of Brooklyn was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for conspiring to and attempting to provide funds to ISIS, a terrorist organization, officials stated.
Dilkhayot Kasimov, 34, was convicted of both counts following a one-week trial in September 2019.
According to court documents, in 2015, Kasimov’s co-conspirators Abdurasul Juraboev and Akhror Saidakhmetov planned to travel to Syria to fight on behalf of ISIS. Kasimov provided money – his own and cash collected by others – to help fund Saidakhmetov’s travel and expenses.
On the evening of Saidakhmetov’s scheduled departure in February 2015, Kasimov drove to John F. Kennedy International Airport, met Saidakhmetov at the terminal and handed him $1,600 in cash on behalf of himself, co-conspirator Abror Habibov and others.
“Today’s sentence demonstrates the significant consequences for those who help terrorist groups, including by facilitating the travel of others to join ISIS,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “Kasimov was part of a group of individuals who sought to travel to Syria to join ISIS or to fund others who sought to become foreign fighters for ISIS.”
“Providing financial support to potential ISIS-inspired foreign fighters comes with a stiff penalty,” said Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Field Office. “As Kasimov learned today, his actions will cost him 15 years behind bars. The FBI continues to make every effort to protect Americans at home and abroad and to bring other like-minded criminals to justice.”
Co-defendants Juraboev and Saidakahmetov were each sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, while co-defendant Azizjon Rakhmatov was sentenced to 12.5 years’ imprisonment.
Habibov and co-defendant Akmal Zakirov are awaiting sentencing.
A seventh co-conspirator, Dilshod Khusanov, was charged in a separate indictment, plead guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to designated foreign terrorist organizations, officials stated.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 5.
According to authorities, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Douglas M. Pravda, David K. Kessler and J. Matthew Haggans for the Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case.
The FBI investigated the case.