– KHALID OUAZZANI GOT 14 YEARS FOR SUPPORTING AL QAEDA

 

Khalid  Ouazzani, 35, a Kansas City businessman who swore an oath of allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2008 pleaded, on 10/07/2013,  guilty to providing financial support to the group was sentenced to 14 years in prison, despite a plea from his attorney for leniency because of the risk he took by becoming an informant against the organization. 

Khalid  Ouazzani pleaded guilty in 05/2010 to bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to support a terrorist group, was sentenced in federal court in Kansas City. 

Federal prosecutors claimed Ouazzani provided more than $23,000 to Al Qaeda and had pledged more, with the hope of eventually traveling to the Middle East to join the fight against the USA. 

In his guilty plea, Khalid  Ouazzani admitted making false claims to borrow money for a used auto parts business and wiring the proceeds to a bank in Dubai. That money was used to purchase an apartment in Dubai that later sold for a $17,000 profit, which was given to Al Qaeda. Khalid  Ouazzani also admitted sending the terror group $6,500 from the sale of his business. 

Khalid  Ouazzani, a married father of two who became a U.S. citizen in 06/2006, admitted in his plea bargain to bank fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to support a terrorist group after admitting he gave money and swore an oath of allegiance to the terror network in 2008. 

At Ouazzani’s sentencing hearing Monday, his attorney, Robin Fowler, asked U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs for a five-year sentence — Khalid  Ouazzani already has served roughly 42 months — because his cooperation with federal authorities had landed his two co-conspirators in jail. 

That makes him a snitch and a Muslim who provided support to Al Qaeda, both of which puts his life behind bars in danger, Fowler said. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Casey said the government recommended 15 years — sharply reduced from the roughly 30 years he could have gotten under sentencing guidelines — for supporting the terrorist group and committing bank fraud. 

Federal officials said last year that Khalid  Ouazzani was part of a small terror cell with two New York men, Sabirhan Hasanoff and Wesam El-Hanafi, both of whom pleaded guilty in June 2012 to their roles in the conspiracy (see – Hanafi and Hasnoff). 

Khalid  Ouazzani, who wrote an eight-page letter to the judge apologizing for his actions, addressed the court before Sachs handed down the sentence. 

 

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