Arkansas man pleads guilty for being involved in helping terrorist organization

Little Rock, Arkansas – Arkansas man pleaded guilty on Tuesday for helping terrorist organization.

The Yemeni nationality man Bilal Al-Rayanni of Helena-West Helena, admitted that in the period of October to December 2014 was helping Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. At this period, he was living in his birth country Yemen.

According to the court reports, he pleaded guilty of providing material support to a designated terrorist group. Two counts of making a false statement on a passport application were dropped in an exchange of his plea.

Al-Rayanni has been using a false name in his passport since he was a child. When he applied for passport in 2019, he used his alias Bilal Kassim Alawdi.

The investigation about using fake name in his passport application led the authorities to find out that he was helping the terrorist group in 2014. Authorities added that the man was not an immediate safety threat at the time when he was charged in August 2019.

The suspect is awaiting his sentence while being held by the U.S. Marshals Service.