The Justice of USA declared the Uzbek citizen Sayfullo Saipov guilty of having killed eight peoplebetween them five Argentines, a Belgian and two Americans, in a mass hit-and-run in New York in 2017. The sentence was handed down by a jury in the southern district of New York that must now determine the corresponding sentence.
Saipov, 34, originally from Uzbekistan, was tried on a total of 28 charges, including murder and links to terrorism for ramming a group of cyclists and pedestrians traveling on a bike lane on the West Side Highway in lower Manhattan. , in New York City.
The event occurred in 2017 in lower Manhattan. According to the investigation, Saipov broke into a bicycle lane with a pickup truck and ran over dozens of people before colliding with a school bus. After the hit-and-run, he fled shouting “Allah is great” and showing his weapons until he was detained by the police.
Sentence
Specifically, Sayfullo Saipov, was found guilty of the crimes of murder in support of organized crime activities, assault with a dangerous weapon, provision of material support to Islamic State, and violence and destruction of a vehicleAs reported CNN.
Although Saipov pleaded not guilty at all times, the jury found him guilty and now must determine the corresponding penalty, which can be life imprisonment or the death penalty, if the vote is unanimous. One of the aggravating factors during the process was that the man might have acted on behalf of the Islamic State (IS), despite the fact that there is no evidence.
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That thesis was supported by prosecutor Amanda Leigh Houle. “The people that IS trusts to conquer territories and kill non-believers, those are their soldiers. Of course they are part of IS. That’s common sense,” she said, adding that Saipov would have carried out the attack. to become a member of the terrorist group.
For his part, defense attorney David Patton questioned the prosecutor for the claim that the attack was caused by Saipov’s desire to join IS. Instead, he argued that he did it out of “religious fervor” and to “ascend to paradise.”
Who is Saipov?
Saipov, who arrived in the United States thanks to an immigration program, became radicalized when he arrived in the country in 2010 through the jihadist forums that abound on the web, as revealed in 2017 by the then governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo in the middle. from the shock of the attack.
Meanwhile, the man settled in Ohio and later in Florida until he later moved 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.
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