After deliberating for six hours, a jury convicted Aws Mohammed Naser, of Westland, Mich., on Tuesday of trying to support the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as ISIS, and for possessing a bomb as a felon.
The 37-year-old faces up to 35 years in prison for the two charges. The jury reached its unanimous decision after a trial that lasted five weeks.
“The trial proved that this defendant spent years trying to support ISIS—first by attempting to join its ranks overseas, then by turning to explosives and extremist networks on American soil,” stated Sue Bai, head of the U.S. Justice Department’s national security division.
“His relentless pursuit of terrorism posed a clear threat to our national security, and his conviction makes clear that the Justice Department will hold accountable those who seek to advance the violent aims of foreign terrorist organizations,” Bai stated.
Jerome Gorgon Jr., the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, stated that Naser “is a bombmaker and self-avowed ‘son of the Islamic State,’ a vicious foreign terrorist organization hell-bent on murdering Americans and destroying our way of life.”
“Naser tried to travel and fight for ISIS overseas but was turned away, so Naser turned his fight inward on America, gathered drones and built a bomb in his basement,” Gorgon stated. “But our office is dedicated to finding and applying the full force of the law against any terrorist, like Naser, plotting to harm Americans.”
Naser “became radicalized and frequently posted extreme Salafi-Jihadist ideological content on his YouTube channel,” according to evidence presented at the trial, the Justice Department stated. “Naser developed a close relationship with Russell Dennison, an aspiring Salafi-Jihadist preacher, and the two jointly traveled to Iraq in early 2012.”
After he returned to Michigan in August 2012, he prepared to join Dennison, who had traveled to Syria to join the precursor of ISIS, the Al Nusrah Front, the Justice Department stated.
“The two continued to communicate and discussed the terror group’s urgent need for money to acquire firearms,” it added. “Dennison is believed to have been killed in 2019 while with ISIS in Syria.”
Naser tried to travel to Syria in November 2012 but wasn’t allowed to board a plane in Detroit. He bought a one-way flight from Chicago to Beirut in January 2013. “Hours before his scheduled flight to Lebanon, Naser robbed a gas station. After the robbery, Naser took a bus to Chicago and attempted to board his flight to Lebanon with $2,000 in his possession, but was again denied boarding and returned to Michigan,” the department stated.
He was convicted of armed robbery and served a three-year prison sentence. Unable to travel and join the U.S.-designated terror group, he “focused his attention on how to support ISIS in the United States,” per the Justice Department.
“Naser surreptitiously created social-media accounts and joined invitation-only ISIS supporters’ chat rooms, groups and private rooms, where he obtained and viewed official ISIS media reports, publications and other jihadi propaganda,” it said. “He solicited and obtained information on explosives and experimented with manufacturing explosives and operating drones.”
When the FBI searched his home and car in 2017, it found a ready-to-assemble bomb, the department stated.