ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former FBI translator was sentenced to probation Friday after he admitted doctoring transcripts when his own name 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. The person who called Wehelie was under investigation at the time for helping a person join al-Shabab, a militant Somali group designated as terrorists by the U.S.
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.
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