The convicted terrorist who planted pressure-cooker bombs in New York in 2016 was just sentenced to multiple life terms in prison.
At his sentencing Tuesday, federal prosecutors accused Ahmad Khan Rahimi of showing no remorse after planting two pressure-cooker bombs on New York City streets in September 2016, one of which injured 30 people with shrapnel when it detonated, Fox News reported.
The 29-year-old was convicted in October 2017 for the New York City blast which had occurred hours after another explosion in Seaside Heights, N.J. when a small pipe bomb detonated during a Marine Corps 5K run. No one was injured in that blast, but Rahimi was shot several times by police after a two-day manhunt following the bombings.
“He is proud of what he did, scornful of the American justice system, and as dedicated as ever to his terrorist ideology,” federal prosecutors wrote, according to Fox News.
Rahimi, inspired by ISIS and Al Qaeda in 2012, claimed he doesn’t “harbor hate for anyone,” when he was asked to speak at his sentencing on Tuesday.
The terrorist, who was born in Afghanistan, had allegedly begun trying to radicalize other inmates at the Metropolitan Correctional Center where he was being held late last year.
The sentencing “should be the strongest deterrent to future acts of terror,” New York City Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said in a statement.
“Committing terrorism may seem, from the darkest places of the internet and espoused in propaganda, as a higher calling. It is not,” O’Neill said. “Today’s sentencing of life in prison should be the strongest deterrent to future acts of terror.”
Fox News reported:
According to prosecutors, he shared propaganda materials, speeches by terrorist leaders such as Usama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki and bomb-making instructions. One inmate who was said to have viewed the materials was facing charges of providing material support and resources to ISIS.
Sajmir Alimehmeti, who is accused of trying to recruit for ISIS, was moved last month away from Rahimi after he was caught with a thumb drive of materials that included bomb-making instructions and copies of an Al Qaeda magazine, according to the New York Post.
Rahimi “was committed to waging his holy war against Americans years before he carried out his attack,” prosecutors said. “Even today, he appears to remain steadfast in that commitment and has shown no remorse. The defendant’s communications while incarcerated further demonstrate that, far from appreciating the depravity of his actions, he is proud of what he did, scornful of the American justice system, and as dedicated as ever to his terrorist ideology.”
On the eve of Rahim’s sentencing, his father blamed the FBI for not following through after he claimed he contacted them in 2014 about his son, whom he called a “terrorist” in an interview Monday with WNBC News 4.
“After two months, they say, ‘Your son is not doing any act like a terrorist,'” Mohammad Rahami told the television station. “I said, ‘You sure he not doing anything?’ He say, ‘Yeah, is good news.'”
He added that his son “did it as a terrorist… this is terrorist.”
“My son, he did wrong, and the FBI did the wrong, too. The government is responsible for that reason. They have the power to stop the crime and they did not stop the crime,” he told WNBC, which reached out to the FBI for comment.
An FBI official had told The Associated Press in 2016 that Rahami “at no time” discussed his son’s radicalization with bureau officials.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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