A Kenyan is facing a 15-year prison
term in the United States after pleading guilty to charges of raising funds for
Al-Shabaab and an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, according to a report in the
Daily Nation.
Mohamed Hussein Said, 27, pleaded
guilty on Thursday to conspiring to provide and attempting to provide financial
support to Al-Qaeda and its affiliates Al-Nusra Front in Syria and Al-Shabaab
in Somalia.
According to a statement by the US
Justice Department, Said is accused of providing material support to “foreign
terrorist organizations.”
He was indicted on 15 counts
alongside US citizen Gufran Ahmed Mohammed.
Both men were arrested in Saudi
Arabia last year and flown to Miami by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations
(FBI) agents.
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| Kenyan citizen Mohamed Hussein Said was arrested by FBI agents in Saudi Arabia |
The US Justice Department said Mohammed
wired more than $11,600 (Sh1.1 million) to Said to support Al-Shabaab.
“Said also served as a contact and
recruiter of foreign fighters from the United Kingdom and elsewhere travelling
to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab,” the US State Department added.
The two men were also conspiring to
send recruits to the Al-Qaeda and Al-Nusra Front to fight in Syria.
Said’s sentencing will be held on
August 14.
The two were arrested as a result of
their comments in Internet chat rooms used by Islamist jihadists.
FBI agents posing online as
recruiters and fundraisers for terrorist groups gathered evidence of Said's and
Mohammed's efforts on behalf of Al-Shabaab.
Court documents filed earlier by US
prosecutors state that Said had sought funds from the undercover FBI agent
"to pay the rent for fighters who were in Kenya on the command of Abu
Zubeir, an Al-Shabaab leader."