ISIL recruiter found guilty of trying to kill his cellmate in a Kentucky prison
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mufid Elfgeeh was convicted of attempted murder for stabbing his cellmate about 30 times.
- Elfgeeh was serving a sentence for recruiting fighters for ISIL when the attack occurred.
- Prison staff used multiple nonlethal munitions and breached the cell to restrain Elfgeeh.
A former terrorist organization recruiter who was serving a sentence at a Kentucky prison was convicted of attempted murder on Wednesday after it was determined he stabbed his cellmate at least 30 times.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 42, was found guilty by a federal jury after a two-day trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Kentucky. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the conviction.
The incident happened Jan. 15, 2019, inside the U.S. prison in McCreary County. The attorney’s office said Elfgeeh was already serving a 22 and a half year sentence for attempting to recruit fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, commonly referred to as ISIL.
Elfgeeh had requested a private cell but was denied. The attorney’s office said he became upset over the denial and used an improvised weapon to stab his cellmate at least 30 times.
Prison staff tried stopping the attack by using three sprays of pepper spray, pepper vapor grenades, foam baton strikes, pepper balls and hornet nest munitions, according to the attorney’s office. Elfgeeh continued stabbing his cellmate and wasn’t stopped until staff breached his cell and restrained him while wearing protective gear.
Since the incident in 2019, Elfgeeh has been transferred to prisons in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Florida, according to court documents. He is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 1, according to prosecutors.
How did Elfgeeh recruit fighters to ISIL?
Between December 2013 and May 2014, Elfgeeh “actively recruited and attempted to send two individuals — both of whom were cooperating with the FBI at the time — to Syria to join and fight on behalf of ISIL,” the Department of Justice previously said.
Elfgeeh sent anti-American ISIL propaganda videos to a potential recruit and arranged for an English-speaking ISIL contact located in Iraq to communicate over social media. He also paid more than $240 for that person to get copies of official travel documents, according to the DOJ.
Elfgeeh communicated with the alleged leader of the Green Battalion of the United Rebels of Homs-Al-Murabitun, a group of fighters located in Syria, so the battalion could join ISIL, the DOJ previously said.
Elfgeeh was arrested in May 2014, just weeks after ISIL had been officially designated as a terrorist organization, according to the FBI. He is described as one of the first ISIL recruiters ever apprehended.
