Lirim Sylejmani

Lirim Sylejmani (sometimes spelled Lirim Sulejmani) (born 1976) is a Kosovo-born naturalized American citizen who traveled to Syria and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2015. In December 2024, he pleaded guilty to three felony charges connected to his ISIL membership. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Recruitment by ISIL and life in the Islamic State Sylejmani was born in Kosovo and moved to the United States with his mother and siblings in 1999 when he was 23, fleeing the Bosnian genocide. He was granted refugee status and became an American citizen. He studied civil engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. He lived in Northbrook, Illinois, married and had three children. One of his daughters died young. After the 2008 recession and his daughter's death, Sylejmani went to Canada, where he says he became more religious.

In November 2015, he traveled with his wife and two surviving children, aged four and one, to Kosovo. From there they flew to Turkey, and a smuggler took them over the Syrian border to join ISIL. He told Wright that if given another chance he would still choose to live in a caliphate, saying, "For me, at this point, everything is religious." In December 2024, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to three charges: conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, providing and attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, with a lifetime of supervised release to follow.