By Edith Honan
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man U.S. prosecutors say received bombmaking training in Somalia from the Islamist militant group Al Shabaab has been brought to New York to face charges, the U.S. Attorney's office said on Monday.
Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed, who was arrested in Nigeria and brought to New York on Saturday, appeared in U.S. Magistrate Court wearing a blue prison suit. His lawyer said he would enter a plea of not guilty when he is arraigned on Tuesday.
He is charged with providing and conspiring to provide material support to Al Shabaab, which the U.S. State Department lists as a foreign terrorist organization, and receiving and conspiring to receive military-type training from Al Shabaab.
Prosecutors believe Ahmed is an Eritrean citizen who has been living in Sweden.
The U.S. government considers Al Shabaab to be al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state.
The heavily armed group, which has pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, wants to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed government and impose its own strict version of sharia, Islamic law. It controls much of the south and parts of the capital Mogadishu, and courts run by its clerics have ordered executions, floggings and amputations.
According to the indictment unsealed on Monday, Ahmed received Al Shabaab "jihad training" in the vicinity of Kismayo and Barawa, Somalia, in April 2009, and provided the group with $3,000.
Ahmed faces a maximum sentence of 45 years if convicted.
Source: Reuters