By AP
KANSAS CITY, MO –
A former Michigan congressman accused of accepting stolen funds on behalf of a Missouri charity with alleged terrorism ties was sentenced Wednesday to 12 months and one day in federal prison.
Four co-defendants of Mark Deli Siljander, who served in Congress from 1981 until 1987, also were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Kansas City. Sentences ranged from probation to nearly five years in prison for Mubarak Hamed, the former executive director of the Columbia-based Islamic American Relief Agency.
Prosecutors said Hamed conspired to hire Siljander to lobby for the charity's removal from a government list of charities suspected of funding international terrorism. The charity closed in October 2004 after being designated a global terrorist organization by the U.S. government.