In first trial under New York terrorism law, ISIS 'matchmaker' gets 18-year sentence

The convict helped the group by praising its ideology, publishing propaganda online and even acting as a marriage broker for its fighters

After the Islamic State group promised in 2014 that the world would “hear and understand the meaning of terrorism,” fervent western support came from a Jamaican preacher once imprisoned in Britain for urging violence, and later expelled from Kenya by officials fearing he would encourage radicalism.

Over the next three years, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the preacher, Abdullah el-Faisal, helped the Islamic State group any way he could, praising its ideology in lectures, publishing propaganda online and even acting as a marriage broker for its fighters.

Faisal was convicted this year of conspiracy and supporting terrorism after prosecutors presented evidence that he had discussed the Islamic State group with an undercover New York City police officer and given her a phone number for a fighter in Syria.

On Thursday, Justice Maxwell Wiley of State Supreme Court in Manhattan sentenced Faisal to 18 years in prison, saying he had “continually advocated for murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes.”

Faisal’s trial marked the first time a defendant had faced a jury after being charged under state anti-terrorism laws adopted in 2001, a week after the destruction of the World Trade Center. A handful of others have been charged under those laws and have pleaded guilty.

Faisal was not accused of planning violence in New York City and had not set foot there during the period covered by his indictment. But undercover police officers with the Intelligence Bureau, whose members typically do not wear uniforms or badges, and communicate with other officers through handlers, exchanged messages with him from Manhattan, establishing jurisdiction for prosecutors.

Investigators’ testimony provided an unusual window into the secretive Intelligence Bureau, which has been criticized at times for compiling information on anti-war protesters and spying broadly on Muslims in New York and New Jersey.

“Manhattan will continue to be a target for those who want to harm this country,” said District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “Working with our federal and state law enforcement partners, our office stands at the ready to continue combating terrorism.”

A prosecutor, Gary Galperin, on Thursday asked Wiley to impose the maximum sentence for the five counts on which Faisal was found guilty, calling him “one of the most influential and vitriolic English-speaking terrorists of our time.”

But one of Faisal’s lawyers, Michael Fineman, asking for leniency, said Faisal had not committed violence, and “there is no evidence that Mr. Faisal ever planned any specific act of terrorism.”

Before being sentenced, Faisal addressed the court, saying he had preached peaceful coexistence. Calling the Islamic State group a “deadly and brutal force,” Faisal said that he would like to work with U.S. authorities against terrorism.

Faisal was born Trevor William Forrest in Jamaica and took his Muslim name after converting to Islam as a teenager. In 2003, he was convicted in Britain of inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder after encouraging the killing of Hindus, Jews and Americans. He visited Kenya for a preaching tour after his release from prison in Britain but was deported in 2010.

The New York investigation into Faisal began in 2016 when a male detective sent an email to Faisal claiming to be a 24-year-old Turkish-American woman from Long Island named Rojin Ahmed. One female detective later took over that role and then put a second female detective in touch with Faisal, telling him she was a “Pakistani sister” named Mavish.

That detective, who testified in court as Undercover 716 because she still does undercover work, told Faisal she wanted to join the Islamic State group and that she wanted to find a husband.

Undercover 716 traveled to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in early 2017. Evidence showed that she sent Faisal a photograph of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque there, saying, “I just need someone in D” which prosecutors said stood for Dawla, another name for the Islamic State group.

“Please sheikh please help me,” she wrote to Faisal the next day, according to evidence, adding, “I’m so close but just need a way to get inside.”

The day after that, evidence showed, Faisal sent Undercover 716 the phone number of an Islamic State group fighter in Syria.

During Faisal’s trial, prosecutors played lectures in which he called for violence and promoted the Islamic State group. In one, called “Jihad Aims and Objectives,” Faisal stated that Muslims who meet nonbelievers should “make the earth warm with their blood.” In another lecture, Faisal urged listeners to join the Islamic State group.

Prosecutors said that Faisal also acted as a recruiter for the group. They presented emails in which he gave out phone numbers to contact the group. Among his contacts, prosecutors added, was the Islamic State group fighter in Syria, Luqmaan Patel.

He had first met Faisal in 2012, and the two kept in touch even after Patel became a fighter, according to text messages introduced as evidence. The messages showed the two discussing battles and the treatment of captured adversaries. When Patel wrote “We just kill these rats” and “leave them for dust,” Faisal replied: “It’s best u don’t take prisoners.”