Pakistani Student Jailed In The US For 40 Years Over Failed Plot To Bomb New York Subway

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A Pakistani student who plotted to bomb a British shopping center and an attack on the New York Subway has been jailed for 40 year in America.

Abid Naseer, aged 29, was handed the sentence after he was found guilty of planning to carry out the failed Manchester bombing, as well as a terrorist attack on the New York Subway and a Dutch newspaper.

Prosecutors called it one of the most serious terror plots since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, with Brooklyn’s Federal Court told that ‘hundreds of innocent men, women and children’ could have died had Naseer been able to go ahead with the bombings.

However, it was foiled just days before Naseer was due to carry out the attack.

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Once in court, Naseer had pleaded not guilty to providing and conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda and conspiring to use a destructive device.

He even acted as his own lawyer throughout the trial, often referring to himself in the third person and portraying himself as a moderate Muslim who was falsely accused.

‘Abid is innocent,’ Naseer said in closing arguments in March, adding: ‘He is not a terrorist. He is not an Al Qaeda operative.’

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Later, defense lawyer James Neuman argued there was nothing to back up any claim he was a ‘hardened criminal’, saying the evidence at trial had been limited, that Naseer had never been found in possession of bomb-making materials and questioning how close the plot had been to execution.

FBI assistant director-in-charge Diego Rodriguez said that, rather than use the British education visa system to further his own life, Naseer exploited it ‘to take away the lives of many others in large numbers’.

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