A judge in New York City sentenced a Bangladeshi national to 30 years in prison Friday for attempting to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank in the Wall Street financial district last year.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 22, had earlier pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction-a 1,000-pound device inside a van that was in fact a dummy prop in a sting operation.He said him being cheated by someone he loved and failing to succeed in his life in the US had pushed him towards terrorism which led to the ‘grave mistake’ he made.
“Your Honour, I have made a grave mistake. Please have mercy on me. Please consider my life situation before you sentence me,” Nafis wrote in a letter strewn with typo to Carol Bagley Amon, the Chief United States District judge at the Eastern District of New York.
“I am a simple, calm and quite person who has ended up doing one of the most violent crimes in the history of human civilization. Your Honour, I sincerely request you to forgive me for my grave crime.”
“I apologize to (you) and through you to all the people of the whole America especially those (who) work at and around the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Your Honour, please give me hope of living again. I beg (you) to have mercy on me. Forgive me, please,” he implored.
“I have no idea how much (a) disappointment I am to my parents, still my parents love me. My father has lost his job because of me.
The 22-year-old continued: “My parents are living (off) their savings and sending me money from that savings too. Almighty God only knows how long (they are going) to be able to do it. There is none to take care of my old parents. Your Honor, I need to go to them as early as possible.” His plot was foiled by an FBI undercover agent posing as an al-Qaeda facilitator. Unaware that he was being recorded, Nafis repeatedly declared that he had come to the United States to carry out a terrorist attack.
“Nafis’s goals of martyrdom and carnage were thwarted by the vigilance of law enforcement,” said US district attorney Loretta Lynch after US District Court judge Carol Amon handed down his sentence.
“He will now spend the next 30 years where his own actions have landed him—in a federal prison cell,” she said.
Defence lawyer Heidi Cesare expressed disappointment.
“We were hoping for a little bit of mercy, an acknowledgment of his youth, his adolescence and his attempts to redeem himself,” she said outside the courthouse in Brooklyn.
Nafis entered the United States on a student visa in January 2012 where, according to prosecutors, he sought out al-Qaeda contacts in hopes of setting up a terrorist cell.
In a five-page typewritten letter to judge Amon, dated July 31 and entered into court records, a remorseful Nafis called his actions “inexcusable and cowardly.”
“I do not believe in the Radical version of Islam anymore. I hate it from the bottom of my heart… It is not Islam at all,” he wrote.
He said he had come to the United States “to be able to stand on my own feet, not being a burden on my family anymore” only to slip into depression as he clashed with relatives living in the United States and discovered his girlfriend was two-timing him.
Meanwhile, the family of Nafis were shocked at the 30-year jail term.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 22, had earlier pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and admitted under oath that he intended to use a cell phone to detonate the 1,000-pound (450-kilogram) device.
“We heard the verdict from the BBC and after hearing the verdict Nafis’ parents have become sick,” Tawfiq Alam, brother-in-law of Nafis, told AFP. “We are shocked because we expected a lighter jail term. We still believe he was set up, he can’t do this thing,” Alam, a doctor, said.
The stiff sentence was even more of a blow to the family as it came during the Eid al-Fitr festival marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, he said.
“This 30-year jail term will ruin his life,” he added.
-With AFP/The Independent input
