Twins Jailed in Britain for Funding Somali Terror Training
A court in London on Wednesday jailed identical twin brothers for three years after they admitted a charge of fundraising for acts of terrorism abroad.
Mohammed Shabir Ali and Mohammed Shafiq Ali, 25, were part of a "network of support" for their older brother while he was at a terrorist training camp in Somalia, the Old Bailey heard.
The twins were recorded speaking on the telephone to their brother Mohammed Shamim Ali, 29, about collecting donations from the public and pretending they were for charity, prosecutors said.
Judge Adrian Fulford, sentencing the pair, said he recognized that their main concern had been for their brother's physical and mental health. But they had also been aware of what he was doing in Somalia, he added.
"It is clear that they knew that their brother needed financial assistance and why," Fulford told the court.
The twins told donors they were raising money for Britain-based charity Muslim Aid and "the Palestinian cause", prosecutors said.
Police say they do not know exactly how much money the brothers sent to Somalia. But they admitted the charge on the basis of the sum of £3,000 ($4,700, 3,800 euros) sent between August 2008 and June 2011.
Mohammed Shafiq Ali worked for Transport for London, the public authority that runs the British capital's transport network.
Investigators had found him and his twin in possession of a document called "44 ways to Support Jihad", prosecutors said.
A third man, Shabaaz Hussain, arrested at the same time as the twins, was jailed in March for five years for funding men at Somali terrorist training camps.
Source: Agence France Presse
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