Adis Medunjanin, the man convicted of plotting a terrorist suicide attack with his friends in New York City was sentenced to life in prison. Hit the jump for more.
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A man who was convicted of plotting with two friends to carry out a coordinated suicide attack on New York City subways was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.
US Attorneys Office, via Associated Press
Adis Medunjanin was born in Bosnia and grew up in Queens.
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Federal authorities deemed the plan one of the most dangerous terrorist plots against the city.The man, Adis Medunjanin, 28, who was born in Bosnia and grew up in Queens, was considered the heart and soul of the plot — though not its mastermind — the one whose increasingly radical beliefs in Islam inspired him and two high school friends to participate in jihad. They went to Pakistan with the hope of joining the Taliban in the fight against American troops and wound up at a training camp run by Al Qaeda.
During the brief sentencing hearing in Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Friday, Mr. Medunjanin, wearing a crumpled black suit, and his long hair swept behind his ears, spent several minutes singing verses from the Koran.
Judge John Gleeson politely interrupted once, telling Mr. Medunjanin that while the life sentence was mandatory for a conviction for plotting to use an explosive device, he had the opportunity to argue for leniency on other counts. But Mr. Medunjanin, who maintained throughout the trial that he was never part of the subway bombing plot, followed his Koran recitations with a description of what he considered the darker sides of American foreign policy: abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the use of waterboarding and the killing of innocent civilians during the Iraq war. He closed with an exclamation.
“I had nothing to do with any subway plot or bombing plot whatsoever,” he said. “I ask Allah to release me from prison.”
