A Pakistani man on Wednesday was found guilty in a failed al-Qaeda bomb plot after a New York trial that featured spies in disguise, evidence from the raid on former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s compound and the defendant’s questioning of an admitted co-conspirator.
The jury reached the verdict in a US federal court in Brooklyn after beginning deliberations on Tuesday morning. No date was set for sentencing.
Abid Naseer was first arrested in 2009 in the UK on charges he was part of a terror cell plotting to blow up a shopping mall in Manchester, England. The charges were dropped after a British court found there was not enough evidence, but US prosecutors later named him in an indictment that alleged a broader conspiracy that included a failed plot to attack the New York City subway.
After his rearrest and extradition to the US in 2013, Naseer pleaded not guilty to providing and conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.
He acted as his own lawyer, often referring to himself in the third person as he set about portraying himself as a moderate Muslim who was falsely accused. He was assisted by a court-appointed attorney, but largely spoke for himself and demonstrated a calm demeanor in court.
In her closing argument, Assistant US Attorney Zainab Ahmed told jurors the arrests of Naseer and other members of his cell averted mass murder. The government alleged Naseer had received bomb-making instruction in Pakistan in 2008.
“If the defendant hadn’t been stopped, hundreds of innocent men, women and children wouldn’t be alive today,” Ahmed said.
Naseer’s self-representation created the spectacle of the defendant cross-examining an admitted terrorist. Five British MI5 secret service agents also testified wearing disguises — one wore a fake beard and thick black glasses — and the trial marked the first time documents recovered in the 2009 Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound were used as trial evidence.
However, most of the case hinged on e-mail exchanges in 2009 between Naseer and a person described by prosecutors as an al-Qaeda handler, who was directing plots to attack civilians in Manchester, New York City and Copenhagen. Naseer insisted the e-mails consisted only of harmless banter about looking for a potential bride after going to England to take computer science classes.
Naseer “wanted to settle down,” he said in his closing. “Is there anything wrong with that?”
The prosecutor dismissed Naseer’s explanations as “blather,” adding: “This man wanted to drive a car bomb into a crowded shopping center and watch people die.”
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