New York: Life sentence for attempted attack

Status: 04/22/2021 7:27 p.m.

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A homemade bomb did not detonate properly, otherwise the attempted suicide attack in Manhattan three and a half years ago would have resulted in significantly more victims. The assassin is now imprisoned for life.

Three and a half years after an attempted bomb attack in a pedestrian tunnel in Manhattan, the perpetrator has been sentenced to life imprisonment. New York judge Richard Sullivan said at the sentencing sentence the assassin had committed a “truly heinous” crime. Just because the attack “ultimately failed”, the 31-year-old is not “less guilty”.

In November 2018, a jury found the man guilty of illegal possession of weapons, suspected terrorism and the terrorist threat, among other things. The sentence has only now been imposed.

Attempted suicide attack in a pedestrian tunnel

The jury saw it as proven that the then 27-year-old should have tried in December 2017 at rush hour on a Monday morning in an underground connecting tunnel between the Port Authority bus station and the Times Square subway station with a self-made pipe bomb to blow up.

According to the court records, the bomb was made of a metal tube filled with explosives. In order to ignite them, the perpetrator had used Christmas tree lights, wiring and a nine-volt battery. He wore the explosive device on his body. The man suffered burns and cuts to his hands and upper body in the explosion, was arrested and taken to hospital. Three passers-by were slightly injured.

Radicalized by IS propaganda

The convicted person was inspired by the terrorist organization “Islamic State” and acted alone, the court found. Its radicalization began in 2014 through IS propaganda videos.

In court, the assassin expressed regret about his act. “I can say from the bottom of my heart that I am deeply sorry,” he said. What he did was “wrong”.