A former University of Alabama student was sentenced to more than seven years in prison on Wednesday after secretly providing funding for Al Qaeda. Alaa Mohd Abusaad, 26, had pleaded guilty in 2019 to a charge of concealing terrorism financing after telling an undercover FBI employee how to send money to terrorist fighters.
According to the plea agreement, between February and April 2018, Abusaad instructed an FBI undercover employee on how to send money to Islamist fighters overseas. Abusaad told the FBI employee that money “is always needed” and “you can’t have a war without weapons.”
In addition, the former Alabama student told the agent to use fake names and addresses when sending electronic transfers in order to avoid detection from police.
According to prosecutors, Abusaad also introduced the undercover employee to a financial facilitator who could allegedly route money to “brothers that work with “al Qaeda.”
Abusaad was ultimately sentenced “to 90 months, the equivalent of seven and a half years, in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for concealing the transmission of funds to be provided as material support to al-Qaeda, a designated foreign terrorist organization,” according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
The woman’s lawyers argued that she was left vulnerable due to her mental health issues, according to WBMA-TV.
