A Kosovo-born man residing in the United States has been handed a life sentence for his involvement in aiding the extremist group ISIS, according to an announcement by the Justice Department. Mirsad Kandic, 40, held a prominent position within the organization from 2013 to 2017, a period during which ISIS exerted control over significant parts of Iraq and Syria.
Kandic left his New York residence in 2013 and made his way to Syria, where he joined ISIS and became a fighter stationed in Haritan, near Aleppo. Subsequently, he was instructed to relocate to Turkey, where he played a role in smuggling foreign fighters and weapons into Syria on behalf of the group.
Additionally, Kandic served as an emir for ISIS media, actively disseminating the organization’s propaganda and recruitment messages through over 120 Twitter accounts. According to the Justice Department, he successfully recruited and sent numerous radicalized ISIS volunteer fighters from Western countries into territories controlled by the extremist group in Syria and other parts of the Middle East.
Among those recruited by Kandic was Ruslan Asainov, a fellow New Yorker who was later convicted in February for providing material support to a designated terror group after becoming a sniper for ISIS. Another recruit was Jake Bilardi, a teenager from Australia who was enticed into joining ISIS in 2014. In March 2015, Bilardi carried out a suicide bomb attack, claiming the lives of more than 30 Iraqi soldiers along with his own.
By early 2017, Kandic had gone into hiding under an assumed identity in Bosnia. However, he was apprehended in July of that year in Sarajevo and subsequently extradited to the United States three months later. Following a jury trial in May 2022, Kandic was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing support to ISIS, with the court handing down a life sentence for his crimes.