The man who tried to blow himself up on December 11, 2017 in the corridors of the Times Square subway station in New York, inspired by the Islamic State organization (IS), was sentenced on Thursday April 22. to life in prison by a federal judge in Manhattan.
At the hearing, Federal Judge Richard Sullivan said the sentence was aimed in particular at ” send a message “ to those who might be tempted to carry out actions similar to that of Akayed Ullah. His lawyer, Amy Gallicchio, had asked that the minimum sentence provided for by the texts be pronounced, ie thirty-five years in prison.
A native of Bangladesh, Akayed Ullah was arrested just after causing an explosion, in the middle of rush hour, in a corridor connecting the Times Square subway station, a hotspot in Manhattan, to the Port Authority bus station. He had placed a homemade bomb on his chest, which had only partially exploded.
Seriously injured, he had no casualties, but the attack had fueled the climate of tension caused by a ram car attack in October 2017 that killed eight people in lower Manhattan, an act perpetrated by a man also inspired by ISIS.
” Lone wolf “
The defense assured at trial that Akayed Ullah, who resided in a heavily Bangladeshi neighborhood in Brooklyn, did not want to kill anyone.
But the prosecution had presented him as the very type of the “lone wolf”, determined to carry out deadly attacks on behalf of ISIS, citing in support the messages he had posted on social networks before the attack.
This is ” a miracle “ that the attack did not claim victims, insisted Thursday Rebekah Donaleski, assistant to the federal prosecutor of Manhattan, Audrey Strauss.
In November 2018, a jury found Akayed Ullah guilty of all six counts against him, four of which were individually punishable by life imprisonment. The investigation showed that the young man, who arrived in the United States in 2014 with a family reunification visa, had gradually become radicalized there. He had admitted having been inspired by ISIS, as well as having wanted to take revenge for the American strikes against the organization and denounce American policy in the Middle East.
At the hearing on Thursday, Akayed Ullah apologized and expressed regret.
