A Pennsylvania based Bangladeshi couple pleaded guilty to conspiracy in Philadelphia Federal court for assisting family members who joined Islamic State (IS) on Wednesday.
United States District Court Judge Joshua D Wolson presided over the proceeding, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer citing the US Attorney’s Office.
A naturalized US citizen Shahidul Gaffar, 40 and his wife, Nabila Khan, 35, a legal permanent resident, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization.
The couple most likely to get five years of imprisonment, $250,000 fines, followed by a release with 3 years of supervision.
Shahidul and Nabila were not in custody when they appeared in court to make their pleas, according to the Court documents.
The couple was identified as Pennsylvania residents by the prosecutors but they did not say their residential address accurately.
According to court documents unsealed on Wednesday, in 2015, they provided and attempted to provide financial support to two of Nabila’s brothers who traveled to Syria to join IS fighters. They also discussed the brothers’ travel plans in detail with each other, as well as with the brothers and other family members, as early as September 2014.
In January 2015, Nabila asked her sister living in Bangladesh to sell some of her gold and provide the money to their oldest brother in order to assist him in travelling to Syria. Nabila then flew to Bangladesh to wish her brother a farewell before his departure in February 2015. Shahidul, who remained in Pennsylvania, sent supportive messages to Nabila’s mother.
Further, according to the statement published in the US Attorney’s office of Eastern District of Pennsylvania citing criminal Information, Nabila’s second brother had come to the United States on a student visa and resided with the couple in Pennsylvania from June 2014 until February 2015, when he returned to Bangladesh. Over the next few months, Nabila, who was still in Bangladesh, observed her brothers’ terrorist propaganda videos featuring Anwar al-Awlaki, a designated global terrorist and key leader of ISIS.
Around the same time, Shahidul began sending international money transfers to Nabila’s brother in Bangladesh. These funds had multiple purposes.
According to court documents, in May 2016, nabila received an electronic message that her elder brother had been wounded in the fighting in Syria, and in August 2016, her mother sent a message to her with photographs of her brother’s wounds sustained while in Syria.
US Attorney William M McSwain said in a statement: “The defendants encouraged and supported Nabila Kahn’s brothers joining the murderous terrorist group IS, which is a direct threat to the safety and security of the United States.”
“With their pleas today (Wednesday), Gaffar and Khan admit to providing material support to IS terrorists from American soil,” said Michael J Driscoll, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Philadelphia Division. “As this case shows, extremists need not take up arms themselves to threaten lives and do real harm. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force will never stop working to identify those aiding terrorist groups that consider our country their sworn enemy.”
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Wolfe and Robert Livermore.
