NYC accountant gets 18 years for aiding Al-Qaida

A successful New York accountant who admitted supporting al-Qaida with money and supplies has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

 

Sabirhan Hasanoff was sentenced Monday in federal court.

 

The sentence is two years less than the maximum he faced after pleading guilty to supporting al-Qaida. The judge says it was necessary to send a deterrent message to others who might embrace violent Islamic ideology.

 

Hasanoff has apologized for supporting al-Qaida from 2007 to 2010, saying he was wrong.

 

Prosecutors had portrayed Hasanoff as a new sophisticated breed of homegrown terrorist.

 

The 37-year-old Hasanoff is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia. He lived in Brooklyn with his two children, graduated from Baruch College in Manhattan and had worked as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

 

-Sapa