US imam gets 25 years prison for funding Pak Taliban

An elderly Muslim cleric in South Florida has been held guilty for funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban and sentenced 25 years in federal prison.

According to The Dawn, trial evidence proved Hafiz Khan arranged to send about 50,000 dollars over a three-year period to Pakistan and prosecutors argued the money helped finance violent attacks against both US and Pakistani targets.

Federal prosecutors suggested a 15-year sentence and Khan faced a maximum of 60 years, the report said.

Khan told the judge on Friday that the money sent was for family, friends and a religious school he founded, the report added.

Before his 2011 arrest, the imam at a Miami mosque, Khan also started a religious school, or a madrassah, in Pakistan's Swat Valley and the madrassah was closed for a time by Pakistan's government as an alleged hideout for Taliban fighters, though it later reopened, the report further said.