A federal judge sentenced a former University of Alabama student to seven and a half years in prison after she instructed an undercover FBI employee about how to secretly send funds to terrorist organization al-Qaeda, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.
Alaa Mohd Abusaad, 26, was also sentenced to ten years of supervised release following the term after “pleading guilty to concealment of terrorism financing in September 2019” as part of a plea agreement, the DOJ said in a Wednesday release.
Between February and April 2018, Abusaad coached an undercover FBI employee on how to transfer funds to the mujahideen who were engaged in jihad, the DOJ noted, citing the plea agreement.
She told the FBI employee that funds are “always needed.”
“You can’t have a war without weapons. You can’t prepare a soldier without equipment,” she continued, per the DOJ.
Abusaad also instructed the undercover FBI employee about ways to send funds that would go undetected by authorities, “including by using fake names and addresses when conducting electronic money transfers,” the DOJ said.
Fighters from Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front drive in armed vehicles in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo as they head to a frontline, on May 26, 2015. (Photo credit should read Fadi al-Halabi/AFP/Getty Images)
She then introduced the undercover agent to another individual who could facilitate money transfers from the agent to “brothers that work with” al-Qaeda, the release stated.
Abusaad’s defense had argued that mental health issues and her childhood experiences made her susceptible to the dangers of the internet, WBMA reported. She also sent a letter to the judge, claiming she wanted to aid Syrians under dictator Bashar Al-Assad:
At the time I was not conscious of American presence in Syria, regardless, I acted upon ignorance without reflecting on how my actions may endanger an innocent life. I wanted to help Syrian civilians from the tyrant Assad (referring to Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad) but the way I wanted to help them was wrong. In my mind when I spoke to the UCE (Undercover Employee), I only saw a painted picture of evil when it came to American troops. I saw Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison. I saw the rape, torture, and humiliation of Muslims. I projected what I saw from a few onto all soldiers. I did a similar generalization with the FBI.
Abusaad was a former student at the University of Alabama and had remained in Shelby County Jail in Alabama since her arrest in 2018, WVTM reported.
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