Terrorism-Related Sentence Given to Reston Woman

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Two Somali woman were sentenced to over a decade in prison Friday in federal court for terrorism crimes related to financing foreign terrorism group al-Shabaab.

Muna Osman Jama of Reston, Va. and Hinda Osman Dhirane of Kent, Wash., were sentenced to 12 and 11 years in prison, respectively, for conspiracy to provide material support, and providing material support to a foreign terrorist group.

The women were convicted on Oct. 25, 2016 by U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga. Jama has been arrested at her Reston home in 2014.

The Somali Al-Shabaab insurgents were responsible for attacks such as the 2015 Kenyan university attack that killed 147 people and the 2013 Nairobi mall attack that left 43 dead.

The two defendants had sent money to financiers of al-Shabaab in Somalia and Kenya, according to court documents. Jama and her accomplice organized an online chatroom of women from the U.S., Somalia, Kenya, Egypt, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada to organize and track payments. This helped fund the terrorist group's military actions in north Somalia. The Washington Post reported that the women sent $4,750 abroad altogether.

Recorded phone calls presented in the case showed the women had insider information and close ties with al-Shabaab leadership.

The Post reported that there was no evidence that the defendants planned or supported a specific attack.

“They were and presumably continue to be ardent supporters of al-Shabaab,” Trenga said Friday in court. “They undermined our national security efforts in ways that go way beyond the amounts of money sent.”

Jama was 10 years old when civil war broke out in Somalia, her defense attorney said in court. The women has left war-torn Somalia and made it to the United States in the 1990s. Both became citizens. Jama has seven children.

>> image via Patch file photo