A central Alabama woman will spend about a decade in prison for providing material support to a terrorist group. Arwa Muthana of the Birmingham suburb of Hoover pleaded guilty along with her husband to helping the Islamic State. The sentencings in Manhattan federal court occurred after the couple admitted that they are Islamic State group supporters who tried to go to the Middle East to fight for the organization. Prosecutors say husband James Bradley had expressed interest in conducting a terror attack against the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
The couple was arrested in 2021 on the gangplank at Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal in New Jersey and held without bail. At the time, authorities said they were planning to board a cargo ship that an undercover law enforcement officer told them would go to Yemen. Bradley sought transit to the Middle East by cargo ship because he feared he might have been on a terrorist watch list, prosecutors said. Authorities said that prior to their arrest, the couple distributed extremist online content, including images of IS fighters, Osama bin Laden and terrorist attacks. After Muthana was arrested, she told investigators that she was willing to fight and kill Americans if it was for God, prosecutors said.
Bradley's lawyers also sought a sentence of time served. Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence each of them to at least 15 years in prison. The U.S. Probation Office had recommended that each serve six years in prison. The office cited Bradley's age, his family support and his engagement in deradicalization counseling.
