London: Two Somali identical twins living in London have pleaded guilty to raising funds to support terrorism in their war-torn homeland.
The 25-year-old brothers, Mohammed Shabir Ali and Mohammed Shafiq Ali, accepted a plea-bargain deal on Tuesday and will be sentenced on Wednesday. They were originally charged with assisting others to commit acts of terror abroad and faced a potential life sentence if convicted. By pleading guilty instead to raising money to fund terrorism abroad, a lesser charge, they face a maximum sentence of 14 years. After their April arrests the brothers also were charged with possessing a manual titled "44 Ways to Support Jihad" written by senior al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed last year by a US drone attack in Yemen.
That charge also was set aside today.
PTI