LITTLE ROCK—A Helena-West Helena man has been sentenced to 65 months in prison for providing material support to a terrorist organization. Bilal Al-Rayanni, 31, a naturalized citizen originally from Yemen, was sentenced Friday by United States District Judge Susan Webber Wright. Judge Wright also sentenced Al-Rayanni to 10 years of supervised release following imprisonment.
In July 2014, Al-Rayanni traveled from the United States to Yemen to visit his family, where he stayed until January 2015. While Al-Rayanni was in Yemen, a terrorist organization known as Al Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), also known as Ansar al-Sharira (AAS), began to sweep south from the capital of Sanaa in armed conflict with Houthi rebels. Al-Rayanni admitted to federal agents that while he was in Yemen, he drove a vehicle in an armed convoy as part of an AAS recruiting mission.
Images from Al-Rayanni’s time in Yemen include him with a dagger at his waist bearing the AAS emblem, images of him with the ISIS flag, and images of him in front of a convoy vehicle with an ammunition belt, two rifles, and an AK-47 automatic weapon resting against the vehicle. Al-Rayanni admitted to federal authorities that he drove an AAS recruiter from village to village to recruit fighters to oppose the Houthis.
