Somali FBI translator gets probation for scrubbing his details from transcript of call with al-Shabaab terror suspect
A former FBI translator was sentenced to probation Friday after he admitted doctoring transcripts when his own voice came up on intercepts of phone calls placed by a terrorism suspect.
Abdirizak Wehelie of Burke, Virginia, also received a $1,000 fine at his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.
Wehelie, 68, pleaded guilty in November to making false statements.
He admitted he marked himself down as an ‘unidentified male’ when a target of FBI surveillance left a message on Wehelie’s cellphone in 2012, while Wehelie was working as a contract linguist for the FBI.
Sentencing guidelines called for a term of zero to six months.
Wehelie took responsibility for his actions in comments to the judge before he was sentenced.
‘Upon hearing my voice on the voicemail, I froze in shock and fear; fear of what it could possibly mean for my family and myself,’ Wehelie wrote in a letter to the court.
Wehelie worked as a contractor for the FBI from 2012 to 2015.
In December 2012, a man targeted by the FBI in an investigation connected to the Al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia called and left a voicemail message for Wehelie.
Source:Daily mail
