US federal court indicts India-born brothers for funding al Qaeda

Two India-born brothers and naturalised American citizens have been charged by a US federal court for financing al Qaeda and supporting “violent jihad against the US, the US military in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the world”. 

Yahya Farooq Mohammad (37) and Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad (36) were indicted for raising thousands of dollars and making wire transfers to slain al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. 

The District court of Northern Ohio, which announced the indictment on Thursday, has also two other brothers – Asif Ahmed Salim and Sultane Roome Salim – for providing support to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) which was led by Awlaki.

All four men have been indicted with conspiracy to provide and conceal material support and resources to terrorists. 

The Mohammad brothers face additional charge of conspiring to commit bank frauds. Awlaki, an American and Yemeni citizen, was killed by US forces in a drone attack in Yemen in 2011. 

Yahya is a IT project manager in UAE while Ibrahim is a senior structural engineer in Dallas, US. 
Both the brothers are India-born, who completed their Bachelors in Electronics (Yahya 1995-99) and Civil Engineering (Ibrahim1997-2001) from Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Following this, Yahya came to the US in 1999 for higher studies at the Louisiana State University and later to Ohio State University between 2002 and 2004. He married a US citizen in 2008. Ibrahim also followed a similar path. Both brothers are permanent residents of the US.

According to FBI investigations, which have details of the emails between the four men, they supported jihad through dissemination of propaganda material between 2005 and 2008. 

The four men discussed plans to make a trip to Sanáa, Yemen, to meet Awlaki personally. Through the email group, Mohammad and Salim brothers were in touch with other men who had inside knowledge on Awlaki’s activities and raised funds for the AQAP leader in Yemen. 

The group collected money from sympathisers to the tune of thousands of US dollars within the US to support and to fund Awlaki’s jihad in Yemen. At times, the message for a particular sum of money came through alleged associates of Awlaki, upon which the four men organised funds to raise the target.

In addition, Yahya and Ibrahim obtained money by taking credit cards from American Express, Citibank, First National Bank of Omaha and Discover banks and withdrawing money with no intention of repaying, federal prosecutors alleged. Yahya, who was living and working in the UAE, applied for these cards but provided Ibrahim’s address in Ohio. 

In July 2009, Yahya, along with two others from the email group, travelled to Yemen. Although they couldn’t meet the leader himself, a sum of $22,000 was handed to an associate of Awlaki.

Mohammad and Salim brothers have not been convicted for these charges. Further proceedings will determine the sentencing. Indian security officials seemed unaware of Mohammad brothers or whether they were part of any criminal activities during their time in India.

The Mohammad brothers are not the first Indians to be indicted for financing global terrorism, particularly al Qaeda. The cache of Osama Bin Laden documents found in Abbotabad, Pakistan, at the time of his killing and released in May, has revealed that the al Qaeda leader received multiple payments from an individual he identified as “the Indian brother in Medinah.” 

The person, understood to be a Saudi national, Mahmoud Muhammad Bahaziq (71), was born to an Indian mother in Hyderabad. He is charged as the main financier of Lashkar-e-Taiba operations --including 26/11 Mumbai attacks-- and is listed by the UN as a terror financier.

In October, 41-year-old Haroon Aswat, a Gujrati Muslim of Indian-origin and a British national, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US federal court for trying to set up an al Qaeda training camp in the US on the orders of Islamist extremist preacher Abu Hamza. 

Last year, the FBI caught 31-year-old Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed – a naturalised US citizen of Indian-origin -- who relocated to Saudi Arabia in 2011, for providing thousands of dollars and facilitating recruits for al Qaeda (core group), Jabhat al-Nusrah Front in Syria and Al-Shabaab in Somalia. He is sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-us-federal-court-indicts-india-born-brothers-for-funding-al-qaeda-2142885