Man transferred €400 to Islamic State

A 26-YEAR-OLD man has admitted providing funding from his Waterford base to terrorist organisation Islamic State.

Hassan Bal, formerly of O’Connell Street, pleaded guilty at Waterford Circuit Court yesterday to two counts relating to the funding and attempting funding of Islamic State.

His case was adjourned by Judge Eugene O’Kelly to April 10, when a date will be fixed for Bal to be sentenced. Bal pleaded guilty to the two charges put to him.

The accused is originally from the United Kingdom and moved to Ireland when he was 12 years of age. Bal holds an Irish passport and was training to be an electrician.

After he was arrested in April last year, the district court heard that his wife was preg- nant with the couple’s first child.

Bal pleaded guilty to unlawfully providing €400 in funds, using an An Post/Western Union money transfer, on October 2, 2015 to a Stevo Maksimovic in the city of Brako in Bosnia-Herzegovina, intending or knowing that the funds would be used in whole or in part for the benefit or purposes of the terrorist group known as Islamic State or Daesh.

The offence carries a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.

He also pleaded guilty to unlawfully and wilfully attempting to collect or receive cash on October 23, 2015, from a person known to him as Omar Abu Aziz, by means of telephonic communications and an intermediary at an address at 2 Geron Way, London NW2 6GJ, knowing that the funds would be used in whole or in part for the benefit or purposes of Islamic State.