New York man, Wesam El-Hanafi, 37, pleaded guilty on Monday on counts of providing material support to al Qaeda and of conspiracy.
Manhattan federal prosecutors, in a plea agreement with the defense, recommended a 20-year prison sentence, Reuters reported.
“In July 2009 I participated in a conversation with others in which we discussed seeking out additional contacts within al Qaeda,” El-Hanafi told US District Judge Kimba Wood.
El-Hanafi was arrested in April 2010, along with Sabirhan Hasanoff, 36, a dual US and Australian citizen who pleaded guilty on June 4 to similar crimes. The men, who were arrested abroad and brought to the United States to face charges, had been under law enforcement surveillance.
Prosecutors have said El-Hanafi bought seven digital Casio watches through Internet seller Amazon.com to send to militants in Yemen and that the alarms in the watches could be used as bomb triggers. But his defense attorney said the watches were gifts to his family.
At a court hearing at the time of his arrest, a federal prosecutor said El-Hanafi had travelled to Yemen in February 2008 to link up with al Qaeda leadership.
In the months before his arrest, El-Hanafi was placed on a US “no-fly list.” In February 2010 he contacted US authorities in the United Arab Emirates to find out why he was barred from flying and was arrested shortly afterward.
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