Terrorist found guilty in Port Authority bombing

Terrorist found guilty in Port Authority bombing A Manhattan federal jury has found a Brooklyn man guilty of detonating a pipe bomb in a cro...

Terrorist found guilty in Port Authority bombing

A Manhattan federal jury has found a Brooklyn man guilty of detonating a pipe bomb in a crowded Port Authority tunnel in the name of ISIS â€" setting him up for life in prison.

After roughly six hours of deliberation over two days, a jury of eight woman and four men found Akayed Ullah, 28, guilty of all six counts against him, including using a weapon of mass destruction and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

The evidence at trial was overwhelming, including video surveillance showing Ullah falling to the floor after the pipe bomb he strapped to his body exploded.

Ullah’s defense lawyers admitted during the one-week trial that he detonated the device, but claimed he did it to kill himself â€" not others.

They also argued â€" in an effort to lessen Ullah’s chance of life in sentence â€" that he was not motivated by ISIS, but rather was seeking to protest American policies that he felt were hurting muslims.

“If harming anyone other than himself was his intention, he missed the perfect opportunity,” defense lawyer Amy Gallicchio told the jury during closing remarks â€" referring to video surveillance showing Ullah detonating the bomb at the very moment the crowd around him had dissipated.

“He choose the exact moment when he could take his own life without hurting anyone else,” she said.

But prosecutors urged the jury to convict, saying he intended to kill people on behalf of ISIS.

The evidence included a Facebook message Ullah posted right before he detonated the bomb saying, “O Trump, you failed to protect your nation,” followed by the word “baqiah,” which prosecutors said was “a slogan for ISIS.”

Also, the NYPD Det. who interviewed Ullah at his Bellevue Hospital hotel room told the jury that Ullah confessed to doing it for the terrorist organization.

“I did it for the Islamic State. I did it for Allah,” the cabbie-turned-electrician told Byrne.

“It was about martyrdom not suicide,” prosecutor Shawn Crowley said during closing remarks.

Don’t let him run from what he has done,” she said.

Source: Google News | Netizen 24 United States