Lawal Babafemi

A Nigerian, Lawal Babafemi, 35-Year-Old, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for helping the terrorist group, Al-Qaeda. Babafemi was sentenced by the US District Judge, John Gleeson in Brooklyn after he pleaded guilty in April 2014 for providing support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian penisula.

        

Babafemi had adopted a new name while aiding the terrorist group, his name was changed to "Ayatollah Mustapha",and he was also accused of receiving weapon training, writing rap lyrics to glorify Al-Qaeda activities and also helping to write for their media organisation.

Babafemi was arrested and was extradited to the United states in 2013 after he was arrested after the local terrorism charges. 

Prosecutors also asked that he gets 30 years instead of 22. He travelled to meet with the Al-Qaeda leaders  in Yemen twice between January 2010 to August 2011. He worked on their media operation, including the Al-Qaeda owned magazine "Inspire" .

Another person in police net is a Vietnamese man, Minh Quang Pham, 32, who helped in contributing to writing and editing. The pair became close with Samir Khan, who is also an editor for "Inspire".

The two were pictured in a photograph wearing camouflage and with a rifle. The 2 men were also having the idea of recording a rap song for the Al-Qaeda network, prosecutors said.

Anwar al-Awlaki, the group leader also paid Ayatollah Mustapha, $9,000 to help recruit English speakers and writers from Nigeria.

Samir Khan and Anwar al-Awlaki where US citizen from New Mexico who were both killed in Yemen during a drone strike.

Pham is also awaiting and might face close to 40 years if convicted.

 

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