A Commack man was sentenced Friday to 200 months in prison for attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist group.
Elvis Redzepagic, 30, was sentenced by United States District Judge Denis R.
Hurley in Central Islip for trying to help the Islamic State of Iraq and al- Sham (ISIS) and the al-Nusrah Front.
The U.S. citizen pleaded guilty to the charges in April.
Authorities said that in early 2015, Redzepagic began communicating with someone he believed to be both the commander of a battalion in Syria and a member of ISIS or the al-Nusrah Front, and made attempts to join that individual’s battalion to engage in violent jihad. In July 2015, Redzepagic traveled to Turkey and made multiple unsuccessful attempts to cross the border into Syria. Unable to enter Syria from Turkey, Redzepagic traveled to Jordan in August 2016, but was stopped and deported by Jordanian authorities.
In Facebook messages from October 2015, authorities said, Redzepagic explained that “jihad” is when “you fight for the sake of God” and “die for the sake of Allah.” Redzepagic stated that he traveled to Turkey to “perform Jihad and join Jabhat Al-Nusra.” He predicted, “there will come a time where people will only know to say Allahu Akbar.”
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said, “With the imposition of today’s lengthy sentence, Redzepagic pays a steep price for his misguided embrace of terrorism and his attempts to join ISIS and the al-
Nusrah Front in order to wage violent jihad.”