Man Gets Life Behind Bars for 'Barbaric' Suicide Bombing Attempt in NYC Subway
A judge sentenced a Bangladeshi immigrant to life in prison on Thursday, saying he planned to carry out a “barbaric and heinous” plot to kill as many people as he could with a suicide bombing attack in New York City’s subway beneath Times Square in 2017.
Akayed Ullah, 31, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Richard J. Sullivan, who said Ullah had carried out “about as serious a crime as there is,” though he largely failed when the bomb attached to his chest barely exploded, burning him severely but sparing those around him from serious injuries.
“A life sentence is appropriate,” Sullivan said. “It was a truly barbaric and heinous crime.”
The judge told the would-be suicide bomber that life in prison was “less draconian than the sentence you were going to impose on yourself.”
Ullah, 31, speaking through a white mask and with his tearful mother looking on from a courtroom bench behind him, apologized before hearing the sentence.
“Your honor, what I did on Dec. 11, it was wrong,” he said. “I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, I’m deeply sorry. … I do not support harming innocent people.”
Prosecutors had sought the life term for Ullah, saying the “premeditated and vicious” attack was committed on behalf of the Islamic State group.
But defense lawyer Amy Gallicchio said Ullah deserved no more than the mandatory 35 years in prison.
She said he had “lived lawfully and peacefully” before the December 2017 attack that she blamed on a “personal crisis that left him isolated, depressed, vulnerable and suicidal.”
“He’s not an evil man. He is not a monster,” she said.
The attack in a pedestrian tunnel beneath Times Square and the Port Authority bus terminal left Ullah severely burned but spared pedestrians nearby from more serious injuries, though the government noted that one bystander has lost 70 percent of his hearing.
At trial, prosecutors showed jurors comments made by Ullah on Facebook taunting then-President Donald Trump before the attack.
Ullah got an entry visa in 2011 because he had an uncle who was already a U.S. citizen.
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
