By AMY FORLITI and PETE YOST
Friday, August 06, 2010
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ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)— Prosecutors claim a woman in southern Minnesota who collected donations for Somali refugees was actually supporting a terrorist group.
Amina Farah Ali was known as the go-to person for Somalis in Rochester to donate clothes and other items for refugees.
According to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday, Ali and Hawo Mohamed Hassan were claiming to collect for charity but were sending money to the terrorist group al-Shabab.
Both women say they are innocent.
They were are among 14 people named in indictments unsealed Thursday in Minneapolis, San Diego, and Mobile, Ala. They're accused of being part of what the government called "a deadly pipeline" that routed money and fighters from the U.S. to al-Shabab.
Source: AP