Sayfullo Saipov, the Uzbek who killed eight people in a mass shooting in New York in 2017, has been found guilty of murder by a jury in the Southern District of New York in a trial in which he has pleaded not guilty.
Specifically, he has been found guilty of murder in furtherance of organized criminal activity, assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted murder in furtherance of organized criminal activity, providing material support to Islamic State and violence and destruction of a vehicle, CNN has reported.
The same jury will have to determine whether Saipov — who may have acted on behalf of Islamic State (IS), although there is no evidence of this — is sentenced to life in prison or, if the members vote unanimously, the death penalty.
«The people that EI relies on to conquer territories and kill non-believers, those are their soldiers. Of course they are part of IS. That’s common sense,» prosecutor Amanda Leigh Houle has defended, adding that Saipov would have carried out the attack to become a member of the terrorist group.
For his part, defense attorney David Patton has disputed the claim that the attack was prompted by Saipov’s eagerness to join IS. Instead, he has argued that he carried it out out of «religious fervor» and to «ascend to paradise,» according to the aforementioned network.
Saipov, who came to the United States thanks to an immigration program, was radicalized upon arriving in the United States in 2010 through jihadist forums on the Internet, as revealed in 2017 by the then governor of New York Andrew Cuomo.
The man settled in Ohio and then Florida until later moving to New Jersey to be closer to his wife’s family, with whom he has three children. Saipov was a driver and worked as an Uber driver.
Saipov drove a van into a bike path in lower Manhattan and ran over dozens of people until he hit a school bus, after which he fled with a pintball gun and a blank gun while shouting «Allah is great.» He was arrested by the police after the hit-and-run, which resulted in the deaths of five Argentines, one Belgian and two Americans.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
