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A Bangladeshi immigrant received a life sentence for his failed attempt to bomb a subway station beneath Times Square in 2017, a decision upheld by a federal appeals panel, as reported by the Associated Press on Tuesday. However, the panel overturned his conviction for providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that Akayed Ullah’s life sentence, handed down in 2021, was justified for the botched suicide bombing, where the explosive device strapped to his chest only partially detonated.
The appellate court, based in Manhattan, ruled that the charge of providing material support to ISIS required evidence that Ullah operated under the terror group’s direct control, which was not the case as he acted independently. The three-judge panel upheld other convictions that contribute to his life sentence.
The court elaborated that Ullah could not be seen as directed by ISIS “if he is acting alone, and if ISIS does not know he exists, has no expectation he will hear ISIS’s messages or act on them, and will not know, or care, or have any recourse if he ignores the message completely.”
The judges further noted that Ullah’s self-identification as an ISIS soldier does not prove that ISIS actually controlled or directed his actions.
In a dissent, Judge Steven J. Menashi said it was unsurprising that Ullah was convicted by a jury of providing material support to the terror group when the evidence they saw included Ullah’s statement to investigators that he “did it on behalf of the Islamic State.”
Still, though, two of the 2nd Circuit panel’s three judges concluded he acted “entirely independently” of the Islamic State group, Menashi noted.
“That is wrong,” he wrote. “To reach the opposite conclusion, the majority rewrites the material-support statute and ignores the evidence presented to the jury.”
A lawyer for Ullah and a spokesperson for prosecutors both declined to comment.
At his April 2021 sentencing, Ullah requested leniency.
“Your honor, what I did on Dec. 11, it was wrong,” he said. “I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, I’m deeply sorry. … I do not support harming innocent people.”
Judge Richard J. Sullivan, who now sits on the 2nd Circuit, told him at sentencing that a life sentence was appropriate.
“It was a truly barbaric and heinous crime,” Sullivan said.
The attack in a pedestrian tunnel beneath Times Square and the Port Authority bus terminal left Ullah seriously burned but spared some pedestrians nearby from more serious injuries, though the government noted one bystander lost 70% of his hearing.
Hours after Ullah’s bombing attempt, President Donald Trump derided the immigration system that had allowed Ullah — and multitudes of law-abiding Bangladeshis — to enter the U.S.
The 2nd Circuit ruling comes six weeks after two teenagers were criminally charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization for allegedly bringing explosives to a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” event outside the Manhattan residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The homemade devices did not explode.
A criminal complaint against the men alleged that they were inspired by the Islamic State group.