Dutch woman gets three years in prison for donations to al-Shabaab terrorist group Abroad

The imposed sentence is considerably lower than the eight years in prison that the public prosecutor had demanded against Farhia Hassan from Terneuzen. A people’s jury of the court in the city of Alexandria, Virginia, found her guilty in May of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

The woman stated in her last word through a Somali interpreter on Monday that she was not an al-Shabaab supporter but was donating money to help the Somali people.

Hassan was one of about 15 women who met online in a chat room and regularly pledged small amounts of money to support al-Shabaab militants in Somalia and Kenya, the prosecutor said. Although it was difficult to follow the money flows, the Dutch donated about 300 dollars in a period of three years, according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM). According to her, this could pay the monthly wages of an al-Shabaab fighter or buy a Kalashnikov or a camel in Somalia.

Hassan, born in Somalia, mother of six children, was granted asylum in the Netherlands as a teenager. She was already charged in 2014 but fought against her extradition to the US for seven years. Her lawyers asked the court for a “minimum sentence” of no more than nine months because of the “minimum contributions” attributed to their client. ,,Mrs Hassan has been punished enough already”, was their closing plea.

According to them, the woman should never have been charged in the US. They called it “exaggerated” to sue a Dutch woman with no connection to America for supporting Somali militants.

Although al-Shabaab has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the Islamic movement did not have that classification in the Netherlands and the European Union during the period the online women’s group was active, from 2011 to 2014.

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