Seven years after she was accused of raising money for a Somali terrorist group, a Dutch woman appeared for the first time in Virginia federal court.

       Farhia Hassan, 38, is one of a group of more than a dozen women whom authorities say gathered online from at least 2011 through 2014 to raise money for al-Shabaab, an affiliate of al-Qaeda that has battled U.S.-backed governments in Somalia and Kenya.

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       Two U.S.-based women were convicted of related charges in 2016; both were sentenced to more than a decade in prison. Two other suspects remain at large overseas.

       Hassan fought extradition from the Netherlands and was only brought to the United States this week. She will have a detention hearing Thursday.

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       Some women were told the money would go to feed orphans or build mosques, according to court records, rather than fueling terrorist attacks. The amounts of money Hassan and others are accused of gathering are small, sent in chunks of $50 or $100. But at trial and in sentencing in the earlier case, prosecutors James P. Gillis and Danya E. Atiyeh argued that even a few thousand dollars could have a devastating impact in Somalia.

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       “They financed the suicide vests and the machine guns; they fed, equipped, and gave shelter to the al-Shabaab fighters as they prepared to carry out their attacks; they provided the machinery that permitted the al-Shabaab fighters to return to kill again,” they wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

       Hassan has argued that the United States has no right to prosecute her as a foreign national who supported a group in another country.

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       “This indictment alleges that Ms. Hassan, a foreign national living abroad, was supposed to consider U.S. law when donating money to a foreign organization engaged in internal insurgency in Africa,” defense attorney Jessica Carmichael wrote.

       Judge Anthony J. Trenga rejected that argument, saying Hassan is alleged to be tied to a conspiracy with women in America who sought to harm American interests by backing a designated terrorist group.

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