By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A prominent Islamic scholar was convicted Tuesday of encouraging followers in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops.
Jurors reached their verdict in their seventh day of deliberations in the trial of Ali al-Timimi.
Al-Timini faces a mandatory maximum sentence of life in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have said al-Timimi was a respected scholar who enjoyed “rock star” status among his followers and that he used that influence to guide them into holy war against the United States.
Many of the followers often got together to play paintball in the Virginia woods. Prosecutors said the paintball was not a game, as they contended, but practice for their planned holy war.
Al-Timimi’s lawyers have said he only counseled young Muslims after Sept. 11 that they might be wise to leave the United States because it would become difficult to practice their faith in this country.