Wednesday, June 22, 2011
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A federal judge is sentencing an Ohio woman to just over three years in prison after she and her husband pleaded guilty in a plot to ship money to a Mideast terrorist group.
Amera Akl of Toledo told the judge Wednesday that she knew that up to $1 million would be going to Hezbollah, the Lebanese group the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization.
But her attorney maintained that she took part because she needed the money and that she had no political motives.
Prosecutors say she agreed to send the money overseas after an FBI informant approached her.
The judge’s sentence of three years and four months is six months short of the maximum. Akl agreed to a plea deal to avoid a possible 40-year sentence.