Perpetrator of New York terror attack in which five Argentines died has been sentenced to life imprisonment

The jury which had to define which sanction was applied to Sayfullo Saipov, the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in which five Argentines were murdered on October 31, 2017 in New York, disagreed and this led to a sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The jury failed to reach a unanimous decision to sentence him to the death penalty. and that is why he will spend the rest of his life in prison and spend 22 hours a day in his cell.

The prosecution had requested the death penalty for the terrorist and the defense of Uzbekistan had requested that he be sentenced to life imprisonment to be served in Florence prison in the state of Colorado, considered a The most secure prison in the United States. The jury of twelve people did not reach unanimity regarding the death penalty and therefore the sentence will be life imprisonment.

Among the eight people killed in the Saipov attack were Hernan Mendoza, Diego Angelini, Alexander Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernan Ferrucci, friends who were in New York to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Rosario Polytechnic College graduates. The five Argentines were cycling along the Hudson River Bike Path when Saipov ran them over with a truck he had rented from Home Depot.

During the trial, presided over by the judge Vernon Broderick, testified as a witness the special agent Joanna Maduro, member of the transnational organized crime group and the FBI’s joint counterterrorism group. Maduro was the first person to speak with Saipov after the attack on October 31, 2017. The agent said that around 5 p.m. on the day of the attack, he arrived at Bellevue Hospital with the task of questioning the Uzbek, who was hospitalized after being shot during his arrest.

The FBI agent said Saipov told him he had received instructions to carry out the attack through a video of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, leader at the time of the terrorist organization ISIS. Similarly, the FBI special agent reported that Saipov confessed that in the three weeks prior to the attack he had conversations via the Telegram app with ISIS operatives who were in Iraq. and in Syria, in addition to watching videos of the terrorist group.

The striker also told Maduro that he had planned the attack a year before and that he had decided to use a truck a month before. Also that he decided to use a truck because it was bigger and could kill more people. According to what Saipov told Special Agent Maduro, initially He had thought to carry out the attack in the nerve center of Times Square, but he excluded him because it was very difficult to go there and carry out his criminal mission. That’s why he changed his plans and decided to do it on the West Side of New York.

At the time of his arrest, Saipov was carrying two pistols, one for paintball and the other for buckshot, and four knives which he planned to use if he ran into police.

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