A Nigerian court has ordered an alleged al-Qaida operative extradited to the United States to stand trial on charges that include conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The BBC reported that the suspect, Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi, a Nigerian, will be extradited to the United States in the next two weeks. He is currently in custody in Nigeria.
U.S. Court documents alleged that Babafemi is a member of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula who had travelled to Yemen between January 2010 and August 2011 to receive training and make contact with senior AQAP operatives Anwar al-Awlaqi and Samir Khan.
Al-Awlaqi and Khan, both U.S. citizens, were killed in a September 30, 2011 U.S. drone strike in Yemen.
The Nigerian Tribune newspaper reported that according to court documents, Babafemi admitted to interrogators that he had received about $8,600 from the AQAP to return to Nigeria and recruit English-speaking individuals to work in the group’s English-language media organization.
AQAP has been linked to multiple terror plots against the United States, including the Christmas Day 2009 attempt by Nigerian jihadist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down a U.S.-bound plane with a bomb hidden in his underwear.
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