The owner of an Islamic bookstore in Brooklyn has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for conspiring to send money to terrorists overseas.

Abdulrahman Farhane, 52, was sentenced on April 16, 2007, after pleading guilty in November to charges of money laundering and lying to federal agents. Farhane, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Morocco, is one of four men charged in federal court in Manhattan after an investigation that began shortly after the September 11 attacks. 

Farhane met with Mohamed Alanssi, an FBI informant, at his bookstore to discuss sending money to jihadists in Afghanistan and Chechnya, according to prosecutors.  Alanssi, who attempted suicide in 2004 by setting himself on fire in front of the White House in protest against his treatment by the FBI, helped make a recording of the suspects.  After he recovered from his injuries, Alanssi also testified in the trial of Yemeni cleric Sheikh Mohammed Ali Hassan Al-Moayad.  The sheikh was sentenced in 2005 to 75 years in federal prison for conspiracy to finance terrorism and other related charges.

Two of the other defendants, Tariq Ibn Osman Shah, a Bronx musician and martial arts expert, and Mahmud Faruq Brent, a Maryland taxi driver, are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to agreeing to provide material support to terrorist organizations.

The fourth defendant, Rafiq Abdus Sabir, a former New York doctor who moved to Boca Raton, Florida, in 2002, is still facing trial on several charges, including providing material support to the Al Qaeda.