Court Case

USA v. Kandic, Mirsad

November 2017 (Updated July 14, 2023)
New York, NY
Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)

[EDNY] Mirsad Kandic, a legal permanent resident of the United States residing in Brooklyn, NY, who left the country in 2013, was charged in an indictment on one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). According to the indictment, the defendant traveled overseas and, while abroad, recruited and facilitated the travel of foreign fighters to join the terrorist organization. The indictment was unsealed on Nov. 1, 2017. Kandic was extradited to the United States from Bosnia Herzegovina. Kandic was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn in May 2022 of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and five substantive counts of providing material support to ISIS. In July 2023, Kandic was sentenced to life in prison for material support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization resulting in death.

Case Updates

2023-07-14 | High Level Member of ISIS Sentenced to Life in Prison for Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization Resulting in Death

2022-05-25 | Federal Jury Convicts High-Level ISIS Member of Providing Material Support to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Including Two Counts Resulting in Death

Mirsad Kandic was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn in May 2022 of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and five substantive counts of providing material support to ISIS. Mirsad Kandic of Brooklyn, New York, and Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, was a high-ranking member of ISIS. He had multiple responsibilities within ISIS including recruiting foreign fighters, trafficking foreign fighters from the West through Turkey and into Syria, and obtaining weapons, military equipment, maps, money, and false identifications for ISIS fighters. In carrying out these responsibilities, Kandic worked directly with ISIS emirs and battlefield commanders, including Bajro Ikanovic, who commanded an ISIS training camp in Syria beginning in or around 2014. Ikanovic, in turn, reported to Omar Shishani, then the top military commander for ISIS, and a key advisor to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was, at the time, the leader of ISIS and the self-declared Caliph of the Islamic State. Kandic attempted to leave the United States to fight jihad as early as the summer of 2012. He was denied boarding at the United States point of departure and notified that he was on the no-fly list. In January 2013, Kandic attempted to fly from Toronto, Canada, to Istanbul, Turkey, on a direct flight. He was again denied boarding. The defendant then took a two-day Greyhound bus ride from New York City to Monterrey, Mexico, in November 2013, and flew through Panama, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Kosovo, and Turkey before arriving in Syria at the end of 2013. In Syria, Kandic joined ISIS and became a fighter for the group in Haritan, an ISIS stronghold in the outskirts of Aleppo, wielding Russian-made PK machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles. Kandic was arrested in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS and five substantive counts of providing material support to ISIS in the forms of personnel, including himself, Bilardi, and others, as well as services, weapons, property, and equipment, and false documentation and identification. At sentencing, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment on the two counts resulting in death, and 20 years' imprisonment on each of the other four charges.

Case Documents