Two Islamist militants were found guilty on Monday by a federal jury of plotting to bomb New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Russell Defreitas, 67, a US citizen born in Guyana, and Abdul Kadir, 58, of Guyana, conspired to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at the airport in the New York City borough of Queens.
The men, who were arrested in June 2007, face up to life in prison. They will be sentenced on Dec. 15.
Defreitas, who had worked at the airport, provided knowledge of its facilities and layout, US prosecutors said, while Kadir, an engineer, helped with technical aspects such as how to blow up the pipelines.
“The foiled plot to bomb the JFK Airport fuel tanks and the fuel line that supplied them was a serious threat,” New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement. “Terrorists intent on targeting New York were stopped in their tracks.”
Defense attorneys for the men portrayed them as all bluster and no substance during the trial in federal court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said Defreitas and Kadir did more than just talk and “took concrete steps to make this plan a reality.” However, officials have said the plot was nowhere near being operational when the men were arrested.
During the four-week trial, jurors heard testimony and watched video clips of the airport filmed by Defreitas, and listened to recordings of the men made by an informant.
The men sought to offer their plans to Jamaat Al Muslimeen, an Islamist extremist group in Trinidad and Tobago that was behind a 1990 coup attempt on the island, prosecutors said, and also tried to send Kadir to Iran to muster support.
Kadir, arrested on board a flight to Iran via Venezuela, said he was on his way to a religious pilgrimage and was not doing anything related to the plot.
The defense lawyers expressed disappointment in the verdict.
We believe there’s more than just the evidence that Kadir was up against, the atmosphere of fear in this country ... the fear of terrorism ... especially in New York,” Kadir’s lawyer Kafahni Nkrumah said.
Defreitas’ attorney said her client would appeal the case.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS