NEW YORK, May 2: An American, who received training at Al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan, was today convicted on multiple terrorism charges including plotting with two of his friends to carry out suicide attacks in the New York subways in one of the most serious terrorist plots since 9/11.
Adis Medunjanin, 28, a Queens resident was found guilty by a jury after a four-week trial in federal district court in Brooklyn.
He will be sentenced by US District Judge John Gleeson on September 7 and faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
So far, seven defendants, including Medunjanin and his two co-conspirators have been convicted in connection with the al-Qaeda New York city bombing plot and related charges.
Jurors reached the verdict after deliberating for a little more than a day.
As the verdict was read, Medunjanin gazed at his family members, raised his palms upward and appeared to be saying a prayer.
A Bosnian native, Medunjanin and his two high school friends Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay came within days of executing a plot to carry out coordinated suicide bombings in New York City subways in September 2009, as directed by senior al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, the Justice Department said.
However, when the plot was foiled, Medunjanin attempted to commit a terrorist attack by crashing his car on the Whitestone Expressway here in an effort to kill himself and others.
US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Loretta Lynch said Medunjanin’s journey of radicalization led him from “Queens to Pakistan to the brink of a terrorist attack in New York City – and soon to a lifetime in federal prison.” (agencies)
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