A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a Somali man with suspected terrorist ties to eight years in prison for lying to FBI agents and to an immigration judge in a failed attempt to obtain asylum.
Abdullah Omar Fidse — who pleaded guilty to the charges in December — has already served two of those years because federal authorities transferred him from immigration detention facilities to federal facilities in 2011.
He faced up to 10 years in stacked sentences as part of a plea agreement for the separate charges of lying to the FBI and lying to immigration officials.
Speaking through an interpreter, Fidse denied accusations of supposed associations with terrorist groups in Somalia, saying government prosecutors “are not seeking the truth.”
“I am not a terrorist,” Fidse said. “I am accused of things that I don't know where they are coming from.”
Authorities detained Fidse and his co-defendant, Deka Abdalla Sheikh, at the Hidalgo port of entry in January 2008. Both claimed persecution in their home country but did not possess identification. Sheikh eventually received asylum, but Fidse did not.
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