MINNEAPOLIS — A Minneapolis man has been convicted of helping send young men to Somalia to join the al-Qaida-linked terrorist group al-Shabab.
The federal jury on Thursday convicted 46-year-old Mahamud Said (mah-HAH'-mood sy-EED') Omar on all five counts he faced. He could be sentenced to up to life in prison.
Omar was the first person to stand trial in the government's investigation into what it says was the recruiting of more than 20 men who left Minnesota for Somalia to join al-Shabab, a U.S.-designated terrorist group blamed for much of the violence in the East African country.
Prosecutors say Omar helped young men from Minnesota's large Somali community buy plane tickets to Somalia and buy weapons once they arrived.
Omar says he wasn't a member of al-Shabab and didn't do anything wrong.