Convicted ISIS recruiter and marriage broker Shaikh Abdullah Faisal was sentenced to 18 years in New York state prison on Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced.
“Shaikh Faisal’s advocacy, recruitment and provision of material support to ISIS helped the terrorist organization perform horrific acts, including the murder and kidnapping of innocent people,” said District Attorney Bragg in a statement.
“Tragically, Manhattan will continue to be a target for those who want to harm this country. Working with our federal and state law enforcement partners, our office stands at the ready to continue combating terrorism,” Bragg said.
Faisal, 59, was described by prosecutors as “one of the most influential English-speaking terrorists of our times” and was found guilty of preaching violent jihad, pushing for ISIS recruitment on his social media platforms and trying to inspire others to commit acts of terror themselves in the name of the Islamic State.
He was also found guilty of working as a matchmaker for women looking to marry Islamic militants.
Faisal’s conviction on Jan. 26 concluded New York state’s first-ever terrorism trial, according to the DA’s office. After the two-month-long trial, he a jury found him guilty on all counts after just two hours of deliberation.
Faisal was arrested in Jamaica in 2017 and then extradited to New York City following a joint investigation by the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau and the Manhattan DA’s Office’s Counter Terrorism Program — which was established in 2015 to investigate extremists, terror plots and terror financing, according to the DA’s office.
In 2016, Faisal began communicating with an undercover NYPD officer via email, text and video chat from his home in Jamaica in a bid to encourage her to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS and carry out attacks.
He also offered to introduce the woman — who was posing as a would-be jihadist — to a suitable husband within the terror group after she revealed she was certified to perform first aid and CPR.
Faisal, who previously went by Trevor William Forrest, urged the undercover officer to listen to his online speeches and lectures in which he encouraged followers to wage jihad against enemies of Islam and even kill Americans, Jews and Hindus.
The Muslim extremist was previously convicted in the United Kingdom in 2003 for inciting murder and using racially charged, hateful rhetoric to support terrorist ideologies.
