Fourth Somali sent to prison in terrorist funding case

San Diego, 01 Feb 2014 (SDN) –A cabdriver from Anaheim on Friday became the 4th Somali national to be sentenced to prison for providing money and other support to a terrorist group in their native country.

Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud, 38, was sentenced to six years in prison for his part in helping the al-Shabaab militia, which has been linked to assassinations, suicide bombings and the use of roadside bombs.

Mohamud and the three others were convicted at trial of conspiring to support a group deemed by the U.S. government to be a terrorist organization. Mohamud gathered money from donors in Orange County, according to prosecutors.

Three co-defendants were sentenced in federal court here in November.

San Diego cabdriver Basaaly Saeed Moalin, 37, was sentenced to 18 years; Issa Doreh, 57, an employee of a now-defunct San Diego money transmitting business, was sentenced to 10 years; and Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, 41, an imam at a San Diego mosque, to 13 years.

In one of many phone calls intercepted by federal authorities, an al-Shabaab leader, later killed by a U.S. missile strike, urged Moalin to send money because it was “time to finance the jihad.”

Source: latimes.com