Zubair and Khaleel Ahmed Sentenced for Providing Material Support to Terrorists

CLEVELAND—Zubair Ahmed was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Khaleel Ahmed was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison today for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven M. Dettelbach.

“These sentences send a strong message that we will aggressively go after those who would do harm to our servicemen and servicewomen,” U.S. Attorney Dettelbach said. “There is no greater priority for us than combating those who would do us harm.”

The Ahmeds pled guilty in January 2009 before U.S. District Judge James Carr.

According to court documents, the Ahmeds admitted that between April 1, 2004, and Feb. 21, 2007, they unlawfully and knowingly conspired with other persons, known and unknown, to provide material support and resources knowing they were to be used in preparation for and in carrying out a violation of Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 956 (conspiracy to kill and maim individuals outside the United States, including members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

Zubair Ahmed, 31, of North Chicago, Ill., and Khaleel Ahmed, 29, of Chicago, are cousins.

In May 2004, they traveled together to Cairo, Egypt, where they hoped to make contact with the mujahedeen, receive training and be placed in either Iraq or Afghanistan to fight U.S. troops, according to court records.

They returned to the United States, where they came in contact with an undercover informant and sought military training, according to court records.

Zubair Ahmed testified twice in related cases in Atlanta.

Both were also sentenced to three years of supervised release and each was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas E. Getz and Justin E. Herdman of the Cleveland U.S. Attorney’s Office with help from the Justice Department’s counterterrorism attorneys. It followed an investigation by the FBI’s Chicago Office, with assistance from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Toledo, Ohio. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta also provided support in the case.