Nuradin Abdi was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for his role in the plot to bomb one of our Columbus-area shopping malls. Abdi was part of the local Al-Qaeda cell headquartered out of the Omar Ibn El-Khattab mosque just north of the Ohio State campus. Co-conspirator Iyman Faris was sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2003 for material support of Al-Qaeda. Christopher “Kenyatta” Paul is presently awaiting trial on similar charges, and according to Paul’s indictment and subsequent media reports, at least 10 more members of the cell have not yet been charged (one is known to have fled the country).
Abdi’s sentencing comes after he took a last minute plea deal just prior to going to trial this past summer, much to the chagrin of some of our local extremist leaders who had loudly protested his innocence since his arrest in June 2004. Abdi pled guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.
I reviewed our local Al-Qaeda problem in this previous post. A report from the NEFA Foundation describes the mall plot. The Investigative Project has court documents from the Abdi case, including the indictment and plea agreement.