Pakistani man sentenced to prison in US for attempting to provide support to Al Qaeda
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WASHINGTON - A Pakistani man has been sentenced to seven years in prison in the US for attempting to provide material support and resources to Jabhat al-Nusrah, an alias name for the terror group Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Basit Javed Sheikh, 39, of North Carolina was sentenced to 84 months imprisonment followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty to the charge in August and since he is not a natural born citizen of the US,he faces possible automatic removal from the country. Sheikh had been living for years in the US as a legal permanent resident.
The affidavit to the complaint describes multiple Facebook postings by him in 2013, expressing support for Jahbat al-Nusrah. He posted articles acknowledging that Jahbat al-Nusrah had been designated by the US as a terrorist group.
As detailed within the affidavit, Sheikh utilized Facebook to propagate the violent ideology of Islamic Extremism, US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said.
