Buffalo, NY – Sahim Alwan, one of six Yemeni-American men arrested in Lackawanna last September for allegedly attending an al Qaida training camp, accepted a plea deal Tuesday.
Alwan is the fourth defendant to plead guilty to a charge of providing material support to a terrorist organization. In return for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to seek additional charges against him.
Alwan's plea includes information about several new unnamed participants. He says when he returned from the al Qaida training camp in Afghanistan, he learned others from Lackawanna were considering a similar trip. Alwan also admitted that he had a meeting Osama bin Laden on two occasions.
He faces a nine year prison term.
Alwan, a jobs counselor, said he faked an ankle injury to cut short his time in the training camp. Because of that, Alwan was the only one of the Lackawanna Six to be granted bail. He was never released after failing to come up with the bond.
But a judge was considering the revocation of Alwan's bail after fellow defendent Faysal Galab, in his plea deal, first claimed Alwan met with bin Laden and told him to lie about their trip.
The remaining two defendants are said to be in plea negotiations with prosecutors.