A Maryland man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for terrorism financing and conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State.

The U.S. Department of Justice says Mohamed Elshinawy of the Edgewater suburb pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and received $8,700 to carry out a future attack in the United States.

The Pittsburgh-born Elshinawy was a 7-Eleven employee and newspaper deliveryman when he came on the FBI's radar.

Investigators say much of the money he received came from a United Kingdom-based electronics company run by Siful Sujan, an ISIS hacker who coordinated anti-surveillance technology and weapons development and was killed in December 2015 airstrikes.

Elshinawy was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander. The 32-year-old faces 15 years of supervised release. </s> Mohamed Elshinawy, 32, of Edgewood, Maryland, was sentenced on Friday, March 30, 2018, to 20 years in prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release, for conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization; providing and attempting to provide material support to ISIS; terrorism financing; and making false statements in connection with a terrorism matter.

Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen M. Schenning of the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Gordon Johnson of the FBI’s Baltimore Office announced the sentence issued by U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander.

According to the plea agreement, Elshinawy conspired with others to knowingly provide material support and resources to ISIS, knowing that ISIS was a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. From February 2015 through about Dec. 11, 2015, in Maryland and elsewhere, Elshinawy conspired with others to provide material support and resources, including personnel, services (including means and methods of communication), and financial services, to ISIS. Elshinawy and his co-conspirators utilized various methods of secret communication in order to conceal their criminal association and activities from law enforcement.

As a part of the conspiracy, Elshinawy expressed his support for an Islamic caliphate and his belief in the legitimacy of ISIS. In addition, he expressed his hope that ISIS would be victorious and its enemies defeated, and discussed his readiness to travel to live in the Islamic State. In various other conversations, Elshinawy pledged his allegiance to ISIS, described himself as its soldier, committed to making violent jihad, and asked that others convey his message of loyalty to ISIS leadership.

Elshinawy also received payments from a foreign company totaling $8,700 to be used to fund a terrorist attack in the U.S.

In interviews with FBI agents in July 2015, in an effort to conceal and minimize his criminal involvement with ISIS, Elshinawy provided false information regarding the total amount of money he had received from ISIS operatives and claimed his intent was to defraud ISIS of funds. Throughout his interviews, Elshinawy mischaracterized the true nature and extent of his association with ISIS operatives and the support he had provided to ISIS.

Assistant Attorney General Demers and Acting U.S. Attorney Schenning commended the FBI for its work in the investigation, and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christine Manuelian and Kenneth Clark, who prosecuted the case, and the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section for its assistance with the prosecution.

This entry was posted on March 31, 2018 at 10:26 am and is filed under All News, County, Law Enforcement, More News, z 600X120 Top Ad Bottom, z 600X120 Top Ad Top. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. </s> "Mohamed Elshinawy, 32, of Edgewood, Maryland, was sentenced today to 20 years in prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release, for conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)[Daesh], a designated foreign terrorist organization," the release said on Friday.

Elshinaway also received $8,700 in funding from a foreign company to plan and launch a terrorist attack on US soil, the release said.

Earlier, another wannabe Daesh terrorist from New Jersey, Gregory Lepsky, pleaded guilty to actively sharing information on Facebook about the terrorist organisation. DoJ representatives said earlier that Lepsky faces a prison sentence of 16 to 19 years and a lifetime term of supervised release. </s> A court in London sentenced Dutch man Aweys S. to eight years in prison for terrorism. He was found guilty of preparing for acts of terrorism and planning to join terrorist organization ISIS in Syria, British newspapers Mail Online and Mirror report.

In 2013 S. left his family behind in Breda to move to London, where he got a job as a package deliverer, according to newspaper AD. In London he became radicalized, the British judiciary said in court. The Somali-born Dutch man made headlines in the United Kingdom when prosecutors revealed chat conversations he had with a man in Kenya in court. In these chats they talked about killing former Prime Minister James Cameron and Queen Elizabeth, and opening fire on football supporters and Jewish people.

The court did not convict him for these statements. "These conversations, although chilling, dangerous and testament to your increasing radicalization, were in my judgment more in the nature of fantasy than conspiracy", the judge told him, according to the Mirror. "I am not sentencing you, indeed cannot sentence you on this charge, for threatened acts of terrorism in this country."

The judge added: "Given the scope of your ambition, including your fantasies about the commission of very grave terrorist acts in the UK and your hatred for those who do not share your views, I have no hesitation in finding you dangerous."

S. was arrested at Stansted airport in London on May 24th last year, as he was preparing to board a flight to Turkey, from where he wanted to sneak across the border to Syria or Iraq, according to the Prosecutor.

"You can have no illusions about the nature of the fighters whose ranks you aspired to join, no illusions about their murderous behavior, their atrocities", the judge said, according to Mail Online. "But for your detention at Stansted you could have been within the heart of the area then controlled by so-called Islamic State within a few days."

The Dutch man was convicted for preparing acts of terrorism by applying for a loan, buying a one way ticket to Turkey, and going to the London airport to travel abroad and join a terrorist organization. He was sentenced to eight years in prison. </s> Somalian Aweys Shikhey dreamed of travelling to take part in violent jihad after moving to Tottenham, north London. A delivery driver who harboured "chilling fantasies" about murdering the Queen has been jailed for eight years for attempting to join Islamic State. The 38-year-old kept up a veneer of hard-working respectability, sending money to his families abroad while applying for loans to bankroll his trip to ISIS territory. But in online chat, he fell in love with a jihadi bride in Norway and discussed committing atrocities in the UK with a fellow Somali living in Kenya.

“Under the surface you were increasingly radicalised” His fantasies included murdering the Queen and David Cameron as well as launching attacks against Tottenham football fans and the Jewish community in north London with AK47 rifles. He was found guilty of preparing terrorist acts on or before May 23 last year following a trial at the Old Bailey in February. Judge Martin Edmunds QC jailed him for eight years with a further four years on extended licence. He told the defendant: "In travelling you were abandoning your two families, one in Holland and one in Kenya, behind.

"On the surface you appeared to be a hard-working man, regularly sending money to your families. But under the surface you were increasingly radicalised. "During your conversations with Abdirahman Hassan in Kenya you had discussions about the murder of David Cameron and Her Majesty the Queen and about committing atrocities against football fans and members of the Jewish community in the Tottenham area. "These conversations although chilling, dangerous and testament to your increasing radicalisation were in my judgment more in the nature of fantasy than conspiracy. "I am not sentencing you, indeed cannot sentence you, on this charge, for threatened acts of terrorism in this country."

He added: "Given the scope of your ambition, including your fantasies about the commission of very grave terrorist acts in the UK, and your hatred for those who do not share your views, I have no hesitation in finding you to be dangerous within the meaning of the Criminal Justice Act 2003." The court had heard how the ISIS fanatic tried to raise money for his trip by applying for various loans, securing £10,000 from Barclays for a "wedding", jurors were told. He borrowed more money from his boss on the pretext of visiting his two wives and children in the Netherlands and Kenya. All the while he was in contact with a woman in Norway who applied to ISIS to become a jihadi bride, the Old Bailey heard.

Shikhey was arrested at Stansted airport in May last year before boarding a flight to Istanbul, with an onward route planned into ISIS-held territory. His terrorist desires were revealed in encrypted chat with fellow Somali Hassan on Threema and Telegram. Hassan's computer had been examined after he was arrested for alleged terrorism offences in September 2016. Shikhey told Hassan three or five people were needed to "carry out a bloody attack" and it would be best to find AK47s and other automatic weapons. In reference to White Hart Lane, home to Tottenham Hotspur football club, he added: "They could have been taken to Stamford Hill and when people leave from their game." </s> Three Michigan residents have been charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Muse Abdikadir Muse, Mohammad Abdikadir Muse, and Mohammad Salat Haji, three Kenyans who became naturalized U. S. citizens residing in Lansing, Michigan, each face up to 20 years in federal prison.

All three were arrested Monday at the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the Justice Department said.

Muse Abdikadir Muse was caught at the airport while trying to hop a flight to Somalia, where he intended to fight for the Islamic State, or ISIS, prosecutors said.

His alleged conspirators drove him to the airport and helped him buy the plane ticket, knowing his intent to fight for ISIS, the indictment said.

All three pledged their allegiance to ISIS, recording videos of support, the indictment says. Two of the defendants discussed using a car to mow down non-believers in the United States, according to the indictment. </s> LONDON (AP) — A teenage Iraqi asylum-seeker who told police he had been trained by the Islamic State group has been sentenced to at least 34 years in prison for bombing a London subway train and injuring 51 people.

A judge gave 18-year-old Ahmed Hassan Friday a life sentence with a requirement that he serve a minimum term of 34 years. A jury last week convicted Hassan of attempted murder in the September 2017 attack.

Judge Charles Haddon-Cave called Hassan “a dangerous and devious individual” and said he plotted the subway bombing with “ruthless determination” while pretending to be a model asylum-seeker.

The homemade bomb he placed on a packed London Underground train only partially detonated at Parsons Green station. Prosecutors said there probably would have been fatalities if the device had functioned properly. </s> SYDNEY, Australia — The wife of an Islamic State group recruiter has given the militants’ single-finger salute outside a Sydney court after becoming the first person convicted under a new state law criminalizing the refusal to stand for a judge.

Moutia Elzahed defiantly remained seated on Friday in the Downing Centre Local Court after magistrate Carolyn Huntsman delivered the landmark decision.

The 50-year-old was found guilty of nine charges of disrespectful behaviour during previous court hearings she was involved in. She will be sentenced in June.

New South Wales introduced the law in 2016 after several Muslim defendants refused to stand for judges on religious grounds.

Elzahed is married to Hamdi Alqudsi, who was sentenced in 2016 to eight years in prison for helping young Australians travel to Syria to fight for extremists. </s> In Egypt, a court sentenced 30 accused up to 25 years in prisons over terrorist charges and their affiliation with the Islamic State terror group.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced 18 defendants to 25 years, eight to 15 years and four others to 10 years for joining the terror outfit, possessing explosives and attempting to blow up a church in the seaside province of Alexandria.

The prosecution also charged the accused for targeting vital state institutions and receiving training with IS members in war-torn Syria and Libya.
Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland sentences Maryland resident Mohamed Elshinawy to a 20-year term for financing ISIS.