HOUSTON(TIP): A 38-year-old Indian engineer Ibrahim Zubair Mohammad, in the US state of Ohio, accused of funding a top al-Qaida leader, has pleaded guilty to concealment of financing of terrorism.

The accused sent money to Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. Al-Awlaki was later designated a terrorist and killed by a US drone in 2011.

Mohammad is to receive an agreed-upon prison sentence of 60 months, although he would receive credit for the 30 months he already has spent in the Lucas County jail awaiting trial.
US District Judge Jeffrey Helmick told him that due to his plea and conviction, he would be deported to India.

“You ultimately will be removed from this country and told you are not welcome to come back,” the judge said.

Mohammad had studied at the University of Illinois and lived in Toledo since 2006.

As part of a plea agreement, the four original charges brought by a federal grand jury in 2015 are to be dismissed at the time of sentencing, which was not scheduled, the report said.

Two co-defendants, Sultane Roome Salim, 43, and his brother, Asif Ahmed Salim, 37, are scheduled for a change of plea hearing before Judge Helmick later on April 12.

A fourth co-defendant, Mohammad’s brother, Yahya Farooq Mohammad, 39, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to provide and conceal material support or resources to terrorists.

He had also pleaded guilty to solicitation to commit a crime of violence for a separate case in which he tried to hire a hitman to kill Judge Jack Zouhary. At the time, Judge Zouhary was presiding over the terrorism case.

Yahya Farooq Mohammad was sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison and ordered deported to India once he completes his prison term.