ISIS sniper Aws Naser faces prison as feds call Michigan man dangerous
DETROIT - Federal prosecutors want a Westland man to spend 35 years in prison for trying to provide material support to the Islamic State terrorist group and building a bomb in his basement, a punishment that would mark one of the longest sentences for a terror-related crime in Metro Detroit history.
The government revealed the requested punishment for Aws Naser ahead of the man's scheduled sentencing Thursday in front of U.S. District Judge Jonathan J.C. Grey in Detroit. Naser, 38, deserves a 35-year sentence because of the gravity of his crimes, including twice trying to travel overseas to fight with ISIS and building a deadly improvised explosive device at his suburban Detroit home for use in a terror attack, prosecutors said.
"Naser has never renounced ISIS or withdrawn his support for the notorious global terrorist organization that has conducted and inspired deadly attacks against U.S. and Western interests around the world for over 20 years," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Saima Mohsin and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hank Moon wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
"... His hatred for the United States has not waned," they added.
Terror-related federal prison sentences of 30 years or more are rare in Michigan, and court officials identified just three other cases involving a defendant convicted of such a severe crime. Locally, Nigerian underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is serving four life sentences for trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
Naser's "alleged" crimes happened almost a decade ago, and he is a different man today who should be judged for his actions, not merely thoughts or speech, his defense lawyers, James Gerometta and Amanda Bashi, argued. They filed a memo requesting a 10-year sentence.
"Mr. Naser never acted on the statements he made online, nor was he intercepted on the verge of carrying out any planned attack," they wrote. "If the roots of extremism ― Aws's or others' ― lie in identity fracture, social exclusion, and the quest for significance, then a lengthy custodial sentence cannot suffice as an effective intervention.
"Decades in prison will not holistically address the loss of significance, identity confusion, or social isolation that produced extremism in the first place," they added.
A 35-year sentence would surpass the nearly 20 years given to Barry Croft and the 16-year sentence for Adam Fox, the two ringleaders of a plot to kidnap and harm Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Another ISIS soldier, Dearborn resident Ibraheem Musaibli, is serving a 14-year sentence after being captured while fighting for the terror group in Syria.
Prosecutors request special restrictions on Naser in his sentencing
A 35-year sentence also would be out of line for ISIS-related cases in federal court.
In the last dozen years, at least 222 people have been sentenced for ISIS-related activity and received 12 years in prison, on average, according to the University of Nebraska Omaha's National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center of Excellence.
In most cases, defendants were sentenced to less than 17 years in prison.
Prosecutors have also requested rarely imposed restrictions on Naser once he leaves prison.
They want to subject Naser to lifetime court supervision, including Internet monitoring.
Court officials "need the ability to ensure that Naser is obeying the law and not engaging in conduct that presents a risk of danger to the public," prosecutors wrote. "Here, that means prohibiting Naser from consuming ISIS propaganda."
They also want to prohibit Naser from communicating online in a foreign language without court approval. His Internet use could be overseen by a court computer monitoring program, software and unannounced reviews by court officials.
Most of the special conditions were imposed in other terrorism cases prosecuted locally, including Musaibli and Sebastian Gregerson, a paroled Islamic State "soldier" from Detroit, sentenced to 45 months in federal prison in August 2017. Gregerson was sent back to prison for 18 months in June 2022 after he was caught amassing weapons, consuming radical jihadi propaganda and deceiving court officials.
"I've never seen a restriction on language. It may speak to a strain on resources to probation services that don't have the ability to monitor communications outside of English," said Seamus Hughes, a senior research faculty member at NCITE.
Prosecutors argue Naser presents a radicalized threat
Naser is scheduled to be sentenced 11 months after being convicted following a trial in Detroit. The government portrayed Naser as a lone wolf bombmaker, an Iraqi refugee radicalized in his 20s who repeatedly tried to travel overseas to join the jihadist group and who turned his basement into a lab for building improvised explosive devices.
Naser was charged with two counts of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and being a felon in possession of a destructive device. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the material support charges and 15 years on the destructive device charge.
"Naser's ongoing support for ISIS and its goals, his loathing for the United States, and his violent criminal history, combined with his disregard for the rule of law and repeated failure to follow rules in prison and on parole, present a clear threat to the public," prosecutors wrote.
Naser was born in Iraq and moved with his family to New York shortly before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
His lawyers describe Naser's upbringing as a happy time before the Sept. 11 attacks. Afterward, Naser and his siblings were ostracized and bullied, a treatment that prompted the family's move to Dearborn.
He later dropped out of Fordson High School, worked as a translator for the U.S. Marines and studied at area community colleges.
Naser created a YouTube channel and identified himself as a sniper and mujahid, or fighter for a foreign terrorist organization, prosecutors said. He used the channel to challenge authorities at Henry Ford College and a policy barring Muslims from praying inside the college library and was later expelled for being combative and disruptive.
Naser's behavior put him on the FBI's radar. Investigators sent a team of informants to interact with Naser online, at his mosque and job.
"Most of them returned with nothing notable to report," Naser's lawyers wrote.
Lawyers ask judge to understand what radicalized Naser
His lawyers pushed the judge to understand the factors that drive radicalization.
"The most powerful response to violent extremism includes attentiveness to the human needs of involved individuals - especially needs for identity, belonging, and meaning - alongside a demand for accountability," they wrote.
The Naser case drew parallels to that of Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian terrorist. In Abdulmutallab's case, a government expert built a bomb out of components recovered from the plane and said he believed the device contained triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, an explosive favored by Islamic extremists and nicknamed "The Mother of Satan" for its devastating instability.
Prosecutors said the three key ingredients of TATP - acetone, sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide - were found at Naser's home.
In late 2011, FBI agents learned of a "burgeoning relationship" between Naser and Russell Dennison, a Florida man who prosecutors said was a radical jihadi.
Dennison fled to Metro Detroit in January 2012 and lived with Naser for a week, according to prosecutors. During the visit, the two made plans to travel together to Iraq.
One month later, both men were in Iraq. They traveled to several cities, including Baghdad and Mosul, before Dennison left for Lebanon and joined the jihad.
Naser, meanwhile, returned to the United States in August 2012.
Naser's plans to travel overseas and join the Islamic State never materialized. Court records alleged that even though Naser and Dennison schemed to join the militant group in the Middle East, Naser got stuck in the United States.
Dennison managed to make the trip before being killed by a bomb in Syria seven years ago.
Deradicalized Naser has ability to make a fresh start, lawyers say
Naser has the potential to make a fresh start after leaving prison, his lawyers said, and point to their client's early attempts towards deradicalization. While behind bars, Naser has engaged with an interventionist with Parents 4 Peace, a nonprofit deradicalization organization, who concluded Naser appears to be "relatively moderate in his religious and political views" and is "explicitly rejecting extremism and terrorism," they wrote in a sentencing memo.
Prosecutors said the interventionist's analysis is unscientific, "unhelpful and deeply flawed," and there is no record that anyone from Parents 4 Peace met with Naser behind bars.
"It is a letter of support from someone who likely has never even met Naser," prosecutors wrote.
_____
Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.