A Bowling Green man convicted of crimes stemming from his membership in the terror group ISIS is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors are seeking a 50-year sentence — the maximum allowed under the law for his crimes — for Mirsad Ramic.

A jury found Ramic, 35, guilty last year of providing material support and resources to ISIS, conspiring to provide material support to ISIS and receiving military-type training from a designated terrorist organization.

Jurors heard evidence at the trial in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green that Ramic, a Bosnian national and naturalized U.S. citizen, conspired in 2014 with two Saudi nationals who were at the time Western Kentucky University students to leave the U.S. and travel to Syria with the aim of joining ISIS, designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization and previously known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Evidence showed that Ramic bought a plane ticket for a flight from Nashville to Sarajevo, Bosnia, that included a stopover in Istanbul, Turkey, then paid cash for a plane ticket to the Turkish border city of Gaziantep, from which he made his way to Syria and joined ISIS.

Two former ISIS fighters testified at the trial under pseudonyms, recounting how they observed Ramic at a military base that ISIS had wrested from Syrian forces.

One of the ex-ISIS fighters recalled firing weapons with Ramic at a range, taking part in guard duties with him as part of a Bosnian-speaking ISIS battalion and witnessing him take part in an offensive against Kurdish militants during the siege of the Syrian city of Kobani in 2014.

In a sentencing memorandum filed April 2, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Judd argued that Ramic’s actions in Syria during 2014-15 represented the culmination of a years-long process of radicalization.

“Ramic is a danger to the community and shows no remorse for his crimes,” Judd said in the filing, which requested U.S. District Court Chief Judge Greg Stivers impose the 50-year sentence.

Judd supports his argument in the memorandum by pointing to evidence previously introduced at trial that documented Ramic’s participation in a chatroom on the PalTalk video chat app organized by a radical Jamaican Muslim cleric in which participants “discussed anti-Western rhetoric and jihad-related conversations.”

A confidential source provided information for the FBI claiming that a chat room user, who authorities later determined was Ramic, was authorized to to raise funds from others for the cleric.

Evidence showed that Ramic attempted to travel to Yemen in 2010, but was turned away for lacking a proper visa, and subsequently interviewed multiple times by FBI agents.

While Ramic denied traveling to participate in jihad — Islamic holy war — or to join any terror organization and claimed to have gone there to study Arabic at a school, Judd argued that the evidence at trial did not bear out Ramic’s assertions, pointing to testimony from an FBI online covert employee who said that Ramic lied to authorities about his reason for traveling to Yemen and stressed that it was important to be careful when traveling not to give your intentions to questioning authorities.

One of the ex-ISIS fighters testified that Ramic had an interest in sniper rifles and heavy machine guns, and jurors were shown pictures of Ramic in military gear holding a firearm and standing with a black flag bearing the ISIS insignia.

Jurors were also shown a number of posts from 2014-15 on X, formerly Twitter, from an account belonging to Ramic, one of which articulated in aspiration for then-President Barack Obama’s daughters to be sold as slaves and another post referencing the 2015 execution of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, for which ISIS took credit, that said Jesus would “be with Islamic State” if he were alive today.

Judd said the social media posts, emails and chat room participation introduced at trial were “incendiary” and showed how Ramic “serv(ed) as another mouthpiece through which ISIS was able to push its propaganda out into the world.”

“The nature and circumstances of Ramic’s case show not only a dedication to achieving his goal of joining ISIS after years of planning and several attempts, but a concerning level of skill and ability in achieving those aims,” Judd stated in his memorandum. “The court heard evidence that Ramic hid his intentions to travel by lying about them to the FBI, conspired with and traveled internationally with others, enlisted in ISIS, received lethal training from ISIS and ultimately fought on behalf of ISIS in Syria. It is documented fact that Ramic fought in northern Syria in Kobane as a terrorist soldier … The seriousness of Ramic’s act of joining and fighting for a terrorist organization cannot be overstated.

Ramic’s attorney argues for leniency

Federal public defender Scott Wendelsdorf, Ramic’s court-appointed attorney, will argue that Ramic be sentenced to time served and a lifetime of supervised release.

In a sentencing memorandum filed April 2, Wendelsdorf argued that a sentence of more than five years that Ramic served in Turkey for crimes charged against him there related to his ISIS membership, plus the more than three years Ramic spent in jail in the U.S. pretrial should all count toward his final sentence, and that upon his release, Ramic will have his U.S. citizenship revoked and be deported to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Wendelsdorf takes issue with a federal sentencing guideline calculation that places Ramic in the highest criminal history category and adds an enhancement for terror-related offenses, exposing him to a potential 50-year sentence.

Prior to his 2021 federal indictment, Ramic’s criminal record consisted of a minor traffic offense, which Wendelsdorf argues should place Ramic in the lowest criminal history category.

Wendelsdorf also argued that the terror enhancement was incorrectly applied, focusing on a pre-sentencing report completed by the federal probation and parole office that listed the Syrian government as the only foreign government that Ramic’s conduct was calculated to influence by intimidation or coercion.

Wendelsdorf said that while in Syria, Ramic took up arms against the regime of former president Syrian Bashar al-Assad, whose administration was not recognized by the U.S. as the legitimate government of the Syrian people, which means that the terror enhancement should not apply.

Judd countered that Ramic should be subject to enhanced penalties due in part to his acting as a “propagandist on Twitter posting ISIS propaganda espousing violence against the United States and actively encouraging individuals to engage in ISIS’s brand of violent jihad and martyrdom.”

Judd also contended that the time Ramic spent imprisoned in Turkey should not be counted against his sentence for his violation of American laws.

Ramic’s background and circumstances, gleaned through post-conviction interviews and an evaluation conducted of him by psychologist Dr. Patti van Eys, were offered in Wendelsdorf’s memorandum as factors to be considered when Ramic is sentenced.

The filing notes that Ramic grew up in war-torn Bosnia, where his family was the victim of ethnic cleansing by Serbians and Ramic himself witnessed family members blown up by mines.

Ramic reportedly found a sense of belonging in a refugee camp, despite overwhelming poverty, but that sense was lost after he, his sister and mother were resettled in the U.S.

Ramic’s recollections of life in Kansas City and later in Bowling Green, were chronicled by feelings of alienation at home and ostracism at school, subject to bullying from students and harassment from teachers that resulted in a failure to assimilate.

In his late teens, Ramic’s search for an identity led to him exploring his Muslim roots and embracing the faith in what is described in Wendelsdorf’s filing as a “purist way.”

Ramic maintained he wanted to go to Yemen to further his studies, only to be denied entry and attract the attention of the FBI, Wendelsdorf said.

Wendelsdorf also argued that Ramic came under the sway of ISIS propaganda that urged Muslims the world over to rescue civilians in Syria and that promised an Islamic state in which all lived in a culture of traditional Islamic beliefs.

Affected by his experience in Bosnia, Ramic felt compelled to answer the call, according to Wendelsdorf’s memorandum.

“(Ramic) was the perfect target for ISIS propaganda and vessel for its lies,” Wendelsdorf stated in his filing. “Because of his personal history and characteristics, he was particularly susceptible to its call to come to Syria, defend fellow Muslims and live in peace in an ideal Muslim society. This is what motivated him, not any animosity toward or hatred of the United States.”

Ramic reportedly grew disenchanted in Syria, however, claiming that the Syrians he met there were hostile to foreigners and that they did not adhere to Islamic customs or moral strictures, while the ISIS leadership was “thoroughly corrupt and self-serving, consumed by in-fighting, making money from kickbacks, bribes and criminal dealings with the ‘enemies of Islam.’ ”

As a result, Ramic escaped to Turkey, where he was arrested, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned for crimes related to his ISIS membership and subject to physical and psychological abuse in Turkish prisons.

Ramic informed van Eys during an interview that he now disagrees with the Islamic State “theologically and ideologically.”

“Today, Mr. Ramic still adheres to his Muslim faith, but without the trappings of ISIS and jihad,” Wendelsdorf said in his filing.

Judd urged the court to discount the findings of the psychological report, arguing that Ramic provided van Eys with a “self-serving” account “rife with half-truths, exaggerations, inconsistencies and lies, without any ability to corroborate or fact-check the information upon which she based her report” in contrast to the sworn testimony provided by multiple witnesses at trial.

“Ramic’s accounts are largely grievances on societal expectations based on his religious beliefs and the realities he faced when American society did not meet his expectations,” Judd said in his memorandum. “The fact of the matter is that there are many people from disadvantaged or challenged backgrounds who lead productive and successful lives that do not abandon the United States and join a foreign terrorist organization such as ISIS.”