On Friday, a federal judge in Wilmington denied bond for a Raleigh Muslim woman who was arrested in late January for her alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire beheading plot.
Amanda Greene for Wilmington Faith and Values was in the courtroom where dozens of members from the defendant’s Raleigh mosque community came out to show their support.
Judge Robert Jones, Jr. heard initial evidence in the case of Nevine Aly Elshiekh, a special education teacher in the Raleigh area. She is charged with using interstate facilities in a conspiracy to commit murder for hire.
Her alleged involvement is connected to the case of Hysen Sherifi. He is one of three Raleigh men sentenced for plotting to attack the U.S. Marine base in Quantico, Va.
U.S. attorneys say that Elshiekh and Shkumbin Sherifi, Hysen’s brother, allegedly conspired to hire someone to kill three witnesses from Hysen’s terrorism trial last year. All three are now being housed in the New Hanover County Detention Facility.
The F.B.I. tracked Shkumbin Sherifi down last month in Wilmington.
Elshiekh’s attorneys say she was preyed upon and they plan to appeal the judge’s ruling.
Copyright 2012
Reprinted with permission