Recruitment of youth in ISIS in an American State; details

A US jury has accused a man named Herman Levon Wilson of trying to recruit young people to fight for the terrorist group ISIS.

The Justice Department said Wilson, 45, of New Mexico, was charged with attempting to establish a training center for people willing to fight for the terrorist organization.

On August 23, a federal grand jury indicted Wilson of Albuquerque on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization by establishing an “ISIS center” in New Mexico, according to a Justice Department statement.

The goal of the center was to teach ISIS’s ideology, provide training in “tactical maneuvers and martial arts” and serve as a safe haven for individuals preparing to travel and fight on the group’s behalf in the United States and abroad, the statement said.

He said Wilson, also known as Bilal Abdullah, helped run an online platform that promoted recruitment for the terrorist group ISIS and discussed launching attacks in the United States and abroad.

Devon Fox, the federal attorney general representing Wilson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors said that two men sentenced in July for providing support to the terrorist group ISIS said Wilson had brought them into the group.

Last week, a US court sentenced al-Shafei al-Sheik, a member of the ISIS cell known as the Beatles, to life in prison for holding Western hostages, torturing and executing them.

The eight sentenced to life in prison, 34-year-old El-Shafee El-Sheik, was convicted in April of taking people hostage, conspiring to kill US citizens and supporting a terrorist organization.

In June, the US Department of Justice confirmed that a New York-based Uzbek national convicted of conspiracy and attempting to support ISIS was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Dilkhayot Kasimov, 34, was convicted on both charges after a trial in 2019 and charged in 2015.

Deputy Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said in a statement: “Kasimov is an ISIS supporter and he collected money and gave it to another person to finance his travel to join the terrorist group. With this sentence, Kasimov will be held accountable for his crimes.”

The United States classifies ISIS as a “foreign terrorist organization.”