A Kenyan man was convicted Monday of plotting a 9/11-vogue attack on a U.S. constructing on behalf of the terrorist organization al-Shabab.
A federal jury in Manhattan discovered Cholo Abdi Abdullah guilty on all six counts he faced for conspiring to hijack an aircraft and slam it into a constructing, according to court docket records.
He’s attributable to be sentenced next March and faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.
Abdullah represented himself at some point of the trial, which opened last week. He declined to give an opening statement and did now not actively participate in questioning witnesses.
In court docket papers filed ahead of the trial, prosecutors said Abdullah supposed to “merely sit down passively at some point of the trial, now not oppose the prosecution and whatever the consequence, he would accept the consequence because he doesn’t think that this is a legitimate system.”
Lawyers appointed to assist Abdullah in his self-defence did now not respond to an email searching for remark Monday.
Federal prosecutors, who rested their case Thursday, said Abdullah plotted the attack for four years, present process broad training in explosives and pointers on how to operate in secret and avoid detection.
He then moved to the Philippines in 2017 the place he began training as a commercial pilot.
Abdullah was almost finished with his two-year pilot training when he was arrested in 2019 on local charges.
He was transferred the following year to U.S. law enforcement authorities, who charged him with terrorism-related crimes.
Prosecutors said Abdullah also researched pointers on how to breach a cockpit door and information “about the tallest constructing in a major U.S. city” earlier than he was caught.
The State Department in 2008 designated al-Shabab, which means “the early life” in Arabic, as a foreign terrorist organization. The militant community is an al-Qaida affiliate that has fought to establish an Islamic state in Somalia based on Shariah law.
