FBI translator who lied about hearing himself on recording sentenced

Image: Creative Commons

Feb. 2 (UPI) — A federal judge in Virginia sentenced a former FBI translator to one year of probation for covering up personal contacts with a terror suspect.

Abdirizak Wehelie, 68, of Burke, Va., pleaded guilty in November to making false statements. The judge also ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine.

Prosecutors said the case stems from an incident in which Wehelie was translating messages captured by court-ordered surveillance of a suspect’s cellphone in 2016. One call was a message left on Wehelie’s personal voicemail system which Wehelie identified as from a “UM,” or “unidentified male,” and Wehelie failed to note that he was the intended recipient of the message.

When investigators questioned him, he denied engaging in telephone conversations with the suspect, adding that he knew the suspect, but not very well. He later admitted that the two had known each other for years, and were in telephone contact with each other since as early as 2010.

Prosecutors said that the charges center on allegations that the suspect, identified in court documents as Person A, aided an American resident’s attempt to travel to Somalia to join the al-Shabab terror group.

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