Saudi citizen admits to visa fraud, concealing attendance at Al-Qaeda training camp

New York, December 15

A Saudi citizen has pleaded guilty to visa fraud and making a false statement to the FBI by concealing he attended an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in late 2000.

Naif Abdulaziz Alfallaj, 35, a former resident of Oklahoma, was taken into custody by the FBI in February based on a criminal complaint, the US Justice Department said in a statement on Friday.

According to the complaint, the FBI found 15 of Alfallaj’s fingerprints on an application to an Al Qaeda training camp, known as ‘Al Farooq’, which was one of Al-Qaeda’s key training sites in Afghanistan.

The document was recovered by the US military from an Al-Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan and is also alleged to include an emergency contact number associated with Alfallaj’s father in Saudi Arabia.

Alfallaj is alleged to have first entered the US in late 2011 on a nonimmigrant visa based on his wife’s status as a foreign student. According to the complaint, he answered several questions on his visa application falsely, including whether he had ever supported terrorists or terrorist organisations.

Alfallaj has been detained in federal custody since his arrest in February. A grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Alfallaj, charging him with three counts of visa fraud and making a false statement to the FBI involving an offense of international terrorism, when he denied ever having associated with anyone from a foreign terrorist group.

Alfallaj admitted he possessed a nonimmigrant visa from March 2012 to early 2018 that he obtained by fraud. He also admitted he falsely told agents during a December 2017 interview that he had never visited Afghanistan or participated in religious, tactical, or military training outside Saudi Arabia, and otherwise affirmed falsely that all of the answers on his nonimmigrant visa application were true and correct.

Alfallaj faces up to 10 years in prison on the visa-fraud offense and up to eight years in prison for making a false statement involving international terrorism. He could also be fined up to $250,000 on each count. 

As part of his plea agreement, Alfallaj agreed to be deported from the United States at the end of his prison term. PTI