The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday that a Somali citizen was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for providing support to the Somali-based Islamic terrorist group al-Shabab.
Abdinassir Mohamud Ibrahim pleaded guilty in July to charges of sending emails to recruit support for the terrorists and sending money to an al-Shabab member.
He also admitted lying to U.S. immigration officials by seeking refugee status, claiming he belonged to Somalia's Awer clan and faced persecution at the hands of the Hawiye majority.
Ibrahim is actually a Hawiye.
Al-Shabab has conducted a deadly terror campaign to turn Somalia into a conservative Islamic state. African Union forces have driven the militants out of a large part of Somalia that had been under its control, but the group is still considered extremely dangerous.