Quazi Nafis jailed to 30 years

A US court has sentenced Bangladeshi youth Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis to 30 years in prison after he admitted that he intended to use a bomb in what US authorities called a plot to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Nafis, 22, who had pleaded guilty to the government's charge of "attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction" and faced life in prison, told the judge he now rejected radical Islam and apologised to the people of New York and the United States.

Prosecutors had said Nafis had claimed on social media sites to have contacts with al Qaeda, said Reuters news agency.

"I'm ashamed, I'm lost, I tried to do a terrible thing," said Nafis, before the the verdict was handed down around 9:30pm Friday Bangladesh time.

He was arrested in October 2012 while trying to detonate what he believed to be a 1,000-pound (454-kg) bomb hidden in a van.

Instead, the van carried inert materials planted by an undercover FBI agent as part of a sting operation. Prosecutors said Nafis attempted to use a mobile phone to detonate the bogus device.

Before handing down the sentence, Judge Carol Amon in US District Court in Brooklyn said it was clear Nafis intended to go through with the plot in lower Manhattan.

"He continually dialled the cell phone number that he thought would explode the device," the judge said. Still, she said she was "prepared to accept that the remorse he had expressed is genuine."

Had Nafis been able to accomplish what he had set out to do, prosecutor James Loonam said it would have been "a Boston Marathon style terrorist attack." In April, home-made bombs killed three people and injured 264 others near the marathon finish line.

Loonam asked the judge to punish Nafis within the federal sentencing guidelines of 30 years to life in prison.

The defence asked for a more lenient sentence of 20 years for Nafis, who wore khaki prison overalls and handcuffs.

He had a strict, isolated upbringing and his upper middle class parents sometimes beat him for failing to focus enough on his studies, once so severely he temporarily went mute when he was 6 years old, said his court-appointed defence lawyer Heidi Cesare.

As a university student in Dhaka, he got his first taste of freedom and became radicalised by other students, she said.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in October, Nafis entered the United States in 2012 with a student visa, and eventually travelled to the New York City borough of Queens.

It said he scouted targets for a potential attack, including the New York Stock Exchange and US President Barack Obama, settling eventually on the Federal Reserve Bank in Manhattan.

Nafis attempted to recruit others to his plot, and discussed his plans over social media sites such as Facebook, the complaint said.

He claimed he was in contact with al Qaeda operatives overseas and actively sought out new al Qaeda connections in the United States, the complaint said.

One of the individuals he brought on board was an undercover agent working for the FBI, who monitored Nafis' activities and helped arm him with the inoperable explosives, federal authorities said.

The BBC quoted Nafis as telling the court on Friday that he had rejected radical Islam, in a five-page letter to the judge.

He said, “I alone am responsible for what I've done. Please forgive me.”

"My actions are inexcusable and cowardly. After giving a deep thought I truly hate my actions and I know that I will never pursue such behaviour again that is not only un-Islamic, but also destroyed my family and my life."

Nafis, now being held in a US prison, had written to the judge for leniency in July.

In February, he pleaded guilty to attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and to supporting al-Qaeda.

In the letter to judge Amon, he said that “it was a big mistake” to try to blow up the US Federal Reserve building.

He wrote that his problem of stammering while a child, inability to do well in studies, failing to succeed in the US where he had come to try his fortunes, and being cheated by someone he loved had pushed him towards terrorism, although, he claimed, he was no believer in Islamic militancy.

The New York Daily News has published a copy of the letter Nafis wrote to Amon on July 31.

In his dramatic letter, Nafis wrote that after learning that his girlfriend was cheating on him “I felt like the whole sky fell down over my head”. He felt there was no place for him in this world, and there was no meaning in living any more.

He has said that he could have committed suicide but did not do so because it was forbidden by Islam.

In the letter he repented for his action and sought forgiveness.

Nafis went to the US on a student visa and took admission in a south-east Missouri university. But without completing the cyber security course he had enrolled in, Nafis switched to a technical college in New York.

The news of his arrest had created a stir in the media worldwide. The New York police and the FBI said they had arrested Nafis on Oct 17 after staging what they called a ‘sting operation’.

On Nov 15, the grand jury endorsed the charges brought against him by the prosecutors. He was charged with trying to trigger devastation with explosives and firearms, and helping a terrorist organisation. His trial began after the charges were framed.

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis (File Photo)

On Feb 7, he admitted to his crime, saying he wanted to shake the economic base of the United States. With that in mind, he planned to blow up the Federal Reserve building with the help of an explosives-laden van.

Nafis told the court that he had become a follower of former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he came to the US and had committed himself to carrying out terrorist strikes. But, he said, he now realised that it was not right to kill innocent people in the name of Jihad.

The judge told him that he could face up to 30 years in prison and a fine of US$150,000 (Tk 200,00,000) for his crime and would lose the option of appeal if he admitted to it.

But Nafis said he was admitting guilt despite being aware of the consequences.

The judge then fixed Aug 9 as the day for the judgment in this trial.

His family back in Dhaka had alleged that Nafis had been the victim of a conspiracy after the FBI arrested him.