Man sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for providing material support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs announced this week that Irfan Demirtas, a Dutch-Turkish dual citizen, was sentenced to 88 months in prison after providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization called the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

Demirtas pleaded guilty on Sept. 15, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Under terms of his agreement, Demirtas will be removed from the United States upon completion of his prison sentence. His sentence accounts for 62 months’ credit for time served in France.

The defendant was originally charged in 2011 in a sealed four-count indictment for his conduct that spanned from January 2006 to May 2008, when Demirtas, a Netherlands resident at the time, acted as a fundraiser and facilitator for the terrorist organization. During that period, he acted on behalf of IMU in Pakistan, Afghanistan Turkey, Jordan, the Netherlands and France, and provided personnel and funding to the designated group.

The defendant was arrested in January 2015 in Germany stemming from an Interpol red notice that had been issued on his charges. He was extradited to the U.S. on Jul. 17, 2015.

IMU was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2001 by the U.S. State Department for their military and combat operations in Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael C. Dilorenzo and Ari B. Redbird of the District of Columbia.