SAN DIEGO (CN) - A federal jury convicted four Somali immigrants - including a local imam - of conspiring to provide material support to al-Shabaab, a terrorist group.
Convicted Friday after a 3-week trial were:
Basaaly Saeed Moalin, 36, a San Diego cabdriver;
Issa Doreh, 56, who worked at a money transmitting business;
Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, 40, the imam at a San Diego mosque;
and Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud, 37, a cabdriver from Anaheim.
The first three defendants are all from San Diego.
Al-Shabaab is a brutal Muslim militia in Somalia. The U.S. State Department designated it a terrorist group in February 2008.
"At trial, the jury listened to dozens of the defendants' intercepted telephone conversations, including many conversations between defendant Moalin and Aden Hashi Ayrow, one of al-Shabaab's most prominent leaders, who was subsequently killed in a missile strike on May 1, 2008," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.
"In those calls, Ayrow implored Moalin to send money to al-Shabaab, telling Moalin that it was 'time to finance the Jihad.'
"Ayrow told Moalin, 'You are running late with the stuff. Send some and something will happen.' In the calls played for the jury, Ayrow repeatedly asked Moalin to reach out to defendant Mohamud - the imam - to obtain funds for al-Shabaab."
All face more than 40 years in federal prison and stiff fines, at their May 16 sentencings.
Read the Top 8
Sign up for the Top 8, a roundup of the day's top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday.
Additional Reads
-
Ex-Twitter employee convicted in Saudi spy case August 9, 2022 -
