Ohio Couple Pleads Guilty in Terror Funding Case

An Ohio husband and wife pleaded guilty today to charges that they plotted to help finance a Mideast terrorist group, under a deal that spares them from potential life sentences. Hor and Amera Akl, dual citizens of the US and Lebanon, were arrested in June 2010 after authorities said an FBI informant provided them with cash that they were planning to hide in a vehicle to be shipped to Lebanon. They intended to conceal up to $1 million for Hezbollah, federal prosecutors said.

The Akls had previously pleaded not guilty to several counts carrying the possibility of life prison terms, prosecutors said. They pleaded guilty in Toledo to conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Hor Akl now faces a sentence of a little more than seven years in prison, while his wife could receive up to four years. They remained free on bail after their pleas, and it was not immediately clear when they would be sentenced. (More Hor Akl stories.)