CAUGHT

New York Man Who Sought to Join ISIS Gets 20 Years in Prison

Adam Raishani also helped another New York man fly to Turkey to join the terror group.

A 32-year-old New York man was sentenced to 20 years in prison with 20 years of supervised release after helping one man leave the U.S. to join ISIS and plotting to leave his wife and young son to join the terror group himself, according to the the Justice Department. Adam Raishani, or “Saddam Mohamed Raishani,” was arrested in June 2017 before he boarded a flight from JFK to Istanbul, Turkey—where he was to meet an ISIS member who would lead him where the terror group was in Syria. Prior to his arrest, Raishani told undercover officers he helped another New York man fly to Istanbul to join ISIS in Oct. 2015. In meetings with the officers, he “expressed his desire to wage jihad” on behalf of ISIS and stated he believed the “Quran can be read to justify the violence, including beheadings, perpetrated by ISIS,” according to the Justice Department. After his arrest, law enforcement found a letter Raishani wrote to his family inside his home. Raishani instructed his wife not to tell police about his departure and to say he was out of the country working as a medical volunteer. “Do not believe [law enforcement's] plots,” he wrote. Raishani also wrote that his wife could still choose to “join” him in ISIS, despite her not sharing his radical views.