Mohamad Jamal Khweis, Providing Material Support to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, Virginia 2015

A federal jury has convicted 27-year-old Mohamad Jamal Khweis of Alexandria, Virginia, of providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Khweis left the U.S. in mid-December 2015, and ultimately crossed into Syria through the Republic of Turkey in late December 2015. Before leaving, Khweis quit his job, sold his car, closed online accounts, and did not tell his family he was leaving to join ISIS.

During his travel to the Islamic State, he used numerous encrypted devices to conceal his activity, and downloaded several applications on his phone that featured secure messaging or anonymous web browsing. Khweis used these applications to communicate with ISIS facilitators to coordinate and secure his passage to the Islamic State.

After arriving in Syria, Khweis stayed at a safe house with other ISIS recruits in Raqqa and filled out ISIS intake forms, which included his name, age, skills, specialty before jihad, and status as a fighter. When Khweis joined ISIS, he agreed to be a suicide bomber.

“Khweis is not a naïve kid who didn’t know what he was doing,” said Dana J. Boente, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “He is a 27-year-old man who studied criminal justice in college. He strategically planned his travel to avoid law enforcement suspicion, encrypted his communications, and planned for possible alibis. Khweis knew exactly what he was doing, knew exactly who ISIS was, and was well aware of their thirst for extreme violence.”

Khweis’ conviction follows an investigation led by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. “Mohamad Khweis purposefully traveled overseas with the intent to join ISIL in support of the terrorist group’s efforts to conduct operations and execute attacks to further their radical ideology,” said Andrew W. Vale, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

Khweis is scheduled to be sentenced on [date]. He faces up to 20 years in prison for providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

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