The New Yorker who joined ISIS nicknamed “Umm Nutella” was sentenced to nearly two decades in prison Wednesday — after the ISIS recruiter’s initial “shockingly low” 48-month sentence was tossed by an appeals court.
Sinmyah Ceasar, 30, will now spend 19 years behind bars following the stiff sentence set by Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto — after she was infamously sentenced to just four years in prison by the late Judge Jack Weinstein in 2019.
“With today’s sentence, Sinmyah Amera Ceasar, an unrepentant ISIS recruiter, will be incarcerated for a significant period of time to protect Americans here and abroad from her violent extremism,” United States Attorney John Durham said in a statement.
Weinstein had argued that the Brooklyn woman just needed education and mental health treatment to “save her as a human being” from her terrorism ties — but Ceasar “almost immediately” started reconnecting with ISIS after serving her light sentence while out on supervised release in July 2020, prosecutors have said.
She had faced up to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges of providing material support to ISIS and obstruction of justice.
Ceasar — whose war name “Umm Nutella” translates to “Mother of Nutella” — was out for 13 months when the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s decision in August 2021, calling it a “shockingly low” penalty — and ordered that Ceasar be re-sentenced.
But Ceaser tried to make a run for it, blowing off a court-ordered appearance on Aug. 25, 2021, after the appeals decision — slicing off her ankle monitoring bracelet in an attempt to flee to Russia to avoid going back to prison, federal prosecutors have said.
She was captured days later while hiding out at an auto body shop in New Mexico.
Federal prosecutors said she had a desire to travel and join the terror group and “die as a martyr” — which she proved by going as far as trying to marry ISIS wannabe Fareed Mumuni, who is serving a 25-year sentence for planning to attack an FBI agent.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of 30 to 70 years in prison.
Ceasar’s attorney, Deirdre von Dornum of the Federal Defenders of New York, said in a statement that she was disappointed with Ceasar’s punishment, while acknowledging that the woman suffers from mental health issues.
“Ms. Ceasar’s sentence demonstrates the utter failure of the federal criminal justice system,” Dornum told The Post Thursday. “Lacking the mental health and de-radicalization resources everyone – from the FBI to mental health experts – agrees she needs, the court resorted to “incapacitating” a traumatized young woman who has never hurt anyone but herself.”
Ceasar’s attorneys have said that the ISIS sympathizer was raped as a child and suffered from PTSD.
“This sentence is a fitting and meaningful outcome for a woman who assisted ISIS in recruiting, squandered the chance for redemption by exposing herself as cooperating with the U.S. government, and persisted in promoting extremist ideologies to potential new recruits online,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
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