Alabama Terrorism Suspects Convicted To 15-Years In Prison

Two Alabama men suspected of terrorism were convicted by a federal Judge to 15-year prison sentences each, on Friday.

The Judge in the case said that the lack of remorse shown by the suspects led her to believe they were capable of committing the offenses again.

The Alabama terrorism suspects, who got the maximum sentence possible, are identified as Randy “Rasheed” Wilson and Mohammad Abdul Rahman Abukhdair and were plotting to wage holy war overseas.

Earlier this year they pled guilty to charges of conspiring to provide “material support to terrorists.”

US District Judge Kristi DuBose said she studied hundreds of hours of recorded conversations and emails between Wilson and Abukhdair and concluded they had conceived a “well-researched plan” to wage holy war.

The Alabama terrorism suspects also spoke of killing Americans to further their cause, Judge DuBose added.

The men had purchased tickets to go to Morocco and were trying to leave the country as their plan came together, when they were arrested in separate places in Georgia in December of 2012, according to statements made by the Judge during the hearing in Mobile, Alabama.

“Most people in this courtroom support people’s right to have whatever beliefs they want,” the Judge said. “But when a religion requires you to murder, that is crossing the line.”

Prosecutors say the Alabama men accused of terrorism met online in 2010 and their friendship revolved around extreme Islamic views, prosecutors say.

In 2011 Abukhdair, who lived in Syracuse, New York, moved in with Wilson and his family in Mobile, after having been to Egypt, where he was jailed on suspicion of similar crimes.

The same year the FBI began watching the Alabama terrorists and recording their conversations in which they discussed where they could take their Jihad.

The men decided on Mauritania, which had been affected by a recent wave of extremism, prosecutors say.

“I ask you to punish Randy Wilson, not Osama bin Laden or any of these other people,” said Wilson’s attorney, Dom Soto. “This is basically a case of outing Randy Wilson because he said some terrible things.”

Authorities said that Alabama convicted terrorist Randy Wilson was a former roommate and friend of Omar Hammami, an Alabama native who turned into a senior leader of al Shabaab, the Somali-based al Qaeda affiliate.