Mohammad pleaded guilty in July and admitted conspiracy to travel to Yemen for providing thousands of dollars, equipment, and other support to Anwar Al-Awlaki, a key leader of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula.
An Indian national was sentenced to 27 ½ years in prison for one count of conspiracy to provide and conceal material support to terrorists and one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence.
The 39-year-old Yahya Farooq Mohammad, an Indian citizen, is one of the four defendants, including his brother Ibrahim Mohammad, Asif Ahmed Salim and Sultane Room Salim, who was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2015, the Department of Justice said in a statement on Monday.
Mohammad pleaded guilty in July and admitted conspiracy to travel to Yemen for providing thousands of dollars, equipment, and other support to Anwar Al-Awlaki, a key leader of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula.
“As part of his conspiracy, the defendant provided thousands of dollars to Anwar Al-Awlaki in response to his calls to support violent jihad. Once detained, the defendant also solicited the murder of the federal judge presiding over his case. With this prison sentence, he is now being held accountable for his crimes,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Dana J. Boente.
According to the Justice Department, Mohammad traveled with two associates to Yemen to meet Awlaki and deliver the $22,000 that they had raised. Even though they failed to meet the terrorist leader, Mohammad and his associates did ensure that Awlaki received the money through a courier.
In April 2016, Mohammad told his inmate in the Lucas County Corrections Center in Toledo, Ohio, that he wanted to kidnap and murder US District Judge Jack Zouhary, whom the terrorism case was assigned to. The inmate provided Mohammad with the contact information of an undercover FBI employee (UCE) and stated that the UCE would need a $1,000 in cash.
Mohammad later called the UCE from the Correction Center and agreed to provide the $1,000 down payment. He arranged to have a family member to give the cash to UCE and the money was delivered on May 5, 2016.
On May 5, 2016, that family member met with the UCE and handed over $1,000 in cash. Mohammad later informed the inmate that the rest of the money was coming, according to the Department of Justice.
Mohammad was an engineering student at Ohio State University between 2002 and 2014 and later married a US citizen. He will be deported from the United States upon completion of his sentence, under the terms of his plea agreement.