In 2017 Sayfullo Saipov ran over and killed eight people, including the five Argentine friends. They will define if they give him life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Sayfullo Saipov, accused del terrorist attack in new york which in 2017 cost the lives of eight people, including five rosarinos who traveled to celebrate their 30th anniversary of graduation, was declared this Thursday guilty on all counts that weighed against him by a jury, as announced by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Saipov, 34, originally from Uzbekistan, was facing a total of 28 charges – including murder and terrorism – for having run over several people with a rental truck who were passing through a bicycle lane on the streets of Manhattan, what he left as balance eight dead and twelve wounded.
Following this verdict, the jury must determine in the coming weeks whether the terrorist, who according to the prosecution planned the attack to join Isis, a jihadist group accused of its insurgent and terrorist actions, is sentenced to life in prison or receives the death penalty.
That theory that links the Uzbek with the terrorist group was denied by Saipov’s defense to try to avoid a possible death sentence. David Patton, admitted, however, that his client intentionally ran over the victims.
Saipov, who appeared during the days of debate in front of the Court with his profuse and long beard, He was charged with crimes, attempted murder, assault, and material support of a foreign organization, all for the purpose of joining Isis..
Proving membership of that organization was a key point in the trial, since it could modify the sentence.
While the prosecution requested the death penalty –for this claim to materialize, the verdict of the jury made up of twelve members must be unanimous–, the defense seeks that Saipov be confined to life imprisonment.
The first verdict, raised unanimously, found him guilty of all 28 charges against him. The judge of the Southern District Court of New York sent the members of the court to deliberate on Wednesday, who just a day later presented their resolution. Speed marks the forcefulness of the evidence presented in the first stage of the trial.
“This ruling is a first cloak of justice. We are satisfied. The jury supported the request of the prosecution and from the legal point of view the verdict is correct”, he assured Clarion Juan Félix Marteau, lawyer for the family of Hernan Mendozaone of the Rosarios murdered in the attack.
His colleagues also died in the attack. Diego Angelini, Ariel Erlij, Hernan Ferrucci and Alexander Pagnucco.
The five Argentine victims, along with five other friends, had been high school classmates at the Instituto Politécnico Superior de Rosario and decided to meet in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their graduation.
Two American citizens and a Belgian tourist also died in the attack.
According to the authorities, Saipov – he had emigrated to the US after obtaining a visa in a lottery – was inspired by massacres committed by Isis when preparing the attack and numerous videos and images of the attack were found on his cell phone. terrorist group and its then “emir”.
Saipov, according to prosecutors, he chose Halloween for the attack in order to cause as many casualties as possibletaking advantage of the presence of many people in the streets for this celebration.
With a truck he had rented, he ran over a group of people who were riding bicycles and then got out of the vehicle he was driving shouting “Allah is great” and carrying a pellet gun and a paintball gun.
Saipov was almost immediately hit by police fire, who arrested him and took him to a hospital for treatment.
Federal Crime Court, Saipov he is the first defendant to face a possible death penalty under the Joe Biden administrationwho during his election campaign promised to eliminate capital punishment at the federal level.
The Government of Donald Trump, which resumed federal executions in 2020 after years of paralysis, was the one that authorized prosecutors to request that sentence in the event that the terrorist was found guilty by the jury.
That same jury will soon have to decide whether he should be sentenced to life imprisonment or the death penalty.
The hearings will resume on February 6 and in that second part of the process the court must measure the damage caused by the Uzbek’s action and announce the sentence. It is expected, in this section of the trial, that the relatives of the victims testify.
With information from EFE
DB
