Ahmad Khalil Elshazly, 29, of West Haven, Connecticut, has been sentenced to 92 months in federal prison—more than seven and a half years—for attempting to provide support to ISIS, the Islamic State group designated by the United States as a terrorist organization, the Justice Department said Monday.
“There is no higher priority than the security of our nation and its citizens,” David X. Sullivan, the US attorney for the District of Connecticut, said in a statement. “My office and our law enforcement partners will continue to tenaciously work to investigate, apprehend and bring to justice anyone who threatens us.”
Following his prison sentence, Elshazly will remain under supervised release for the rest of his life, according to the department. He has been jailed since his arrest on Dec. 15, 2019.
The day before his arrest, Elshazly gave $500 to an undercover agent he believed was affiliated with ISIS.
Elshazly thought the individual would help him leave the United States by boat, take him to Turkey and connect him with an ISIS operative who could arrange his travel to Syria.
Authorities arrested him in Stonington, Connecticut, before he could board the vessel, the Justice Department said.
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Court records show that during the 15 months leading up to his arrest, Elshazly pledged allegiance to ISIS and shared “hundreds” of pro-ISIS messages through an instant-messaging platform.
He pleaded guilty on Nov. 30, 2022, to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
The Justice Department also cited disciplinary problems during his detention. “While detained, Elshazly has had numerous disciplinary infractions,” the department said. In August 2025, officers searching his cell discovered a handwritten plan for a coordinated uprising, including diagrams of the housing unit, directions for breaking through secured areas and strategies for confronting the facility’s correctional emergency response team.
Prosecutors had requested a 15-year sentence. Elshazly’s lawyers urged the court to show leniency, arguing that “treating Mr. Elshazly with compassion will show those who practice the Muslim faith that the United States is not the enemy of Islam that the radical Islamists claim the US to be.”
In a sentencing memorandum filed Sept. 1, his attorneys described a childhood marked by “a chaotic upbringing, an unequipped mother, educational failure, low self-esteem, extreme isolation, the stupidity of youth, never treated Autism Spectrum Disorder and bouts of depression.” They said those circumstances left him vulnerable to Syrian and ISIS propaganda he encountered while unsupervised and isolated in his bedroom.
“A disappointment to himself and others in real life, he became increasingly mired in fantasy, making cinematic promises of bold military actions and boasting of skills and abilities, such as rocket manufacturing, that were entirely nonexistent,” his attorneys wrote. They said his autism and related challenges “could be successfully addressed in therapy.”
