Pakistani Convicted in Subway Blast Plot

New York: A Pakistani immigrant was pronounced guilty on Wednesday in a plot to blow up the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan in August 2004.
After two days of deliberations, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted 23-year-old Shahawar Matin Siraj of conspiracy and other charges. He could spend the rest of his life in jail.
Prosecutors say he was planning to attack the subway station in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Siraj maintained that he was entrapped by a police informer.
Siraj and co-conspirator James El Shafay were arrested a day before the Republican National Convention was held at Madison Square Garden in 2004.
El Shafay later pleaded guilty and testified against Siraj.
During the trail, prosecutors played tapes where Siraj laughed about the Sept 11 attacks and said he wanted to cause economic harm to the US.
Siraj now faces life in prison when he is sentenced in October.
His mother who attended the trial was distraught and charged that her son was framed.

 

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