Somali immigrant pleads guilty in terrorism case

SAN DIEGO — A Somali immigrant living in San Diego pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to providing cash and personnel to the terrorist group al-Shabaab in 2010.

Nima Ali Yusuf, 25, entered her plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruben Brooks. She faces a maximum term of 15 years in prison for pleading to a charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego.

Yusuf was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2010. As part of her plea, she admitted she sent about $1,450 to three men under federal indictment in Minnesota for conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabaab, a militia in war-torn Somalia that has links to al-Qaeda. She sent the money from February 2010 to November 2010.

Yusuf was one of five Somali immigrants, four of whom lived in San Diego, who were indicted last year on charges of aiding the terrorist group. The case against the other four, all men, is scheduled for pretrial hearings in February and a trial in May.