Indian, who funded slain al-Qaeda leader al-Awlaki, gets 27.5 years by US court

A US court sentenced an Indian national to 27.5 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to funding slain al-Qaeda leader al-Awlaki and soliciting the murder of the judge hearing the case, Hindustan Times reported.

According to the report, Yahya Farooq Mohammad, the 39-year-old accused, was an engineering student at Ohio State University during 2003-04 and married a US citizen in 2008.

Three others, including the accused’s brother Ibrahim Mohammmad were indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2015. The case against the three other men, who pleaded not guilty, is pending.

Mohammad will be deported from the US on the completion of his sentence, under the terms of his plea agreement.

According to the US Department of Justice, Mohammad admitted to conspiring with his co-defendants to travel to Yemen to provide thousands of dollars, equipment, and other assistance to Anwar Al-Awlaki, in an effort to support violent jihad against U.S. military personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout the world. Al-Awlaki was later designated as a global terrorist in 2010 and identified as a “key leader” of al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula, according to court documents.