USA/FILE: Bosnian-born U.S. citizen is found guilty of planning a coordinated suicide bomb attack on New York's subways

Record ID: 866475

  • Title: USA/FILE: Bosnian-born U.S. citizen is found guilty of planning a coordinated suicide bomb attack on New York's subways
  • Date: 2nd May 2012
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATE (FILE) (REUTERS) SUBWAY TRAIN PULLING INTO STATION AND PEOPLE GET OFF AND ON THE TRAIN VARIOUS OF NY SUBWAY STATION PEOPLE WALKING ON SUBWAY PLATFORM FEET OF NY SUBWAY RIDERS AS TRAIN PULLS AWAY FROM STATION
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA6ENA84MS54XFOVPX0CCSHJVX6
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  • Story Text: A federal jury found a Bosnian-born U.S. citizen guilty on Tuesday (May 1) of planning a coordinated suicide bomb attack on New York City subways in 2009 at the behest of senior al Qaeda operatives.
    Adis Medunjanin, aged 28, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison following his conviction on all charges, including conspiring to carry out a suicide attack on American soil, receiving military training from al Qaeda and plotting to kill U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.
    Medunjanin's accused co-conspirator Najibullah Zazi was arrested in September 2009, just days before Medunjanin and a third member of the plot, Zarein Ahmedzay, were prepared to carry out what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called "one of the most serious terrorist threats" to the United States since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
    Prosecutors had argued Medunjanin was "ready and willing to sacrifice himself to kill" at the command of al Qaeda, saying he committed to carrying out a suicide attack on American soil, a mission given to him by al Qaeda operatives he met in Pakistan.
    "What he was willing to do was to strap a suicide bomb to himself, walk into a New York City subway and blow it up," Assistant U.S. Attorney Berit Berger said in closing arguments last week at the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York.
    In a written statement released by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, he said, "I want to commend prosecutors for the conviction of Adis Medunjanin. His conviction stands as a stark reminder of terrorists' desire long after 9/11 to return to the city to kill more New Yorkers."
    Medunjanin, a U.S. citizen born in Bosnia, was accused as the third member of a plot to bomb the subways in 2009. His high school friends Ahmedzay, 27, and Zazi, 27, both pleaded guilty to planning the attacks with him and are cooperating with the government, awaiting sentencing.
    The jury began deliberations on Monday to decide whether to convict Medunjanin of the nine counts against him.
    The judge allowed the jurors to remain anonymous for their safety.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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