Mohamed Fathy Sulayman biography: 13 things about ex-University of Florida student

Mohamed Fathy Sulayman is a citizen of the United States. His name is also spelled as Mohamed Fathy Suliman.

Sulayman has resided both inside and outside the U.S. Among the countries he has visited are Djibouti, Egypt, India, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Who is Mohamed Fathy Sulayman?

Born in Washington, USA, Sulayman later moved to Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida. He had three traffic violations in Alachua County, which are cutting across traffic to avoid a control device in 2006, failure to obey a traffic control device in 2008 and a speeding ticket in 2009.

From 2009 to 2014, Sulayman pursued an associate’s degree in psychology at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. He left without earning the degree.

Sulayman is 5’9 tall. Here are 13 more things about him:

1. From 2002 to 2005, he attended Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, Volusia County, Florida.
2. In 2005, he entered the University of Florida in Gainesville to study food science and human nutrition.
3. In 2006, he dropped out of the University of Florida.
4. Between February 2009 and June 2014, he sought to support violent jihad by traveling to areas of conflict in an effort to provide material support to terrorist organizations. From May 2009 through October 2012, his email had around 36 attachments that contained audio files that consisted of messages calling for jihad, justifications for jihad, rewards for those who participate in jihad and martyrdom and that encouraged fighting against the crusaders, non-Muslims and those that insult the Prophet Muhammad.
5. In July 2009, he tried to enter Somalia and was detained after being accused of being a foreign fighter entering the country to join al-Shabaab, a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) operating in Somalia.
6. On August 16, 2011 and August 17, 2011, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents interviewed him at the U.S. Consulate Office in Istanbul, Turkey after his attempt to fly from Turkey to New York, USA. He told the agents that he had some mental health issues, particularly a bipolar disorder. He also said that in July 2009, he stopped taking his medication, traveled to Somalia through Dubai, UAE and bought tickets on a regional carrier which took him to Djibouti then to Mogadishu, Somalia.
7. In April 2013, he married a girl, then 17. In May 2013, he registered to vote with no party affiliation. From August 2013 to January 2014, he worked as an assistant manager at a hotel in Khartoum, Sudan.
8. With a one-way flight reservation from Orlando, Florida to Alexandria, Egypt, he arrived in Istanbul on June 12, 2014. Instead of traveling on to Egypt, he paid cash for a one-way airline ticket to the Turkish-Syrian border town of Gaziantep, Turkey. On June 14, 2014, Turkish authorities arrested him for illegally crossing into Syria from Turkey. He was fined $2,000 Turkish Liras and deported from Turkey to Sudan on June 19, 2014. On June 30, 2014, he created a second Facebook account with a Gmail account. On July 8, 2014, he accessed the Facebook account in Sudan.
9. In August 2014 and in December 2014, his Facebook account displayed an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) profile photo featuring the black flag, which is the symbol of the ISIS, a designated FTO.
10. On October 23, 2018, FBI special agent R. David Collins interviewed him in Sudan. He said he created a Facebook account with an email account he had used at a university in Florida. 
11. On September 11, 2020, U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones signed a criminal complaint Collins filed against him. According to the complaint, he was in India and had not returned to the U.S. since he left in June 2014.
12. On January 31, 2021, he was booked into the Alachua County Jail in Gainesville. He was expelled from a foreign country and returned to the U.S. by the FBI for prosecution. On February 23, 2021, he was indicted for attempting to provide material support to the ISIS.
13. In June 2023, he turned 36.