NEW YORK ATTACKER APPEARS IN COURT, UNAPOLOGETIC ABOUT HIS ACTIONS
▶ US president Donald Trump makes demand for the death penalty but lawyers find his intervention unwelcome
President Donald Trump doubled down on his demand that the death penalty be imposed on the man who killed eight people in a terror attack in New York, after prosecutors offered a clear outline yet of Sayfullo Saipov’s state of mind.
Mr Trump yesterday rowed back from his suggestion that the 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant be sent to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay but again risked endangering the prosecution by demanding his execution before any evidence had been presented in court.
“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the federal system,” he wrote on Twitter.
“There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. Death penalty.”
Saipov made his first appearance in court on Wednesday afternoon. He was taken from hospital where he was being treated for gunshot wounds.
The court in Lower Manhattan is only a few blocks from where he is accused of driving a rented pickup truck through a crowd of cyclists.
He wore a grey tracksuit and sat quietly in a wheelchair.
His hands and feet were shackled as he was charged with providing material support to ISIL and one count of violence and destruction of a motor vehicle causing death.
Prosecutors filed a 10-page criminal complaint offering extraordinary insight into his methods and motivations. Investigating officers said Saipov waived his right to silence from his hospital bed and appeared unapologetic about his actions.
“During the interview with law enforcement, Saipov requested to display ISIL’s flag in his hospital room and stated that he felt good about what he had done,” reads the complaint.
FBI agents found about 90 videos on his mobile phone – including footage of ISIL fighters killing prisoners and thousands of pieces of extremist propaganda.
Saipov told officers he began planning his attack two months ago after being inspired by a speech given by ISIL leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, in which he questioned wheth- er Muslims in America were doing enough in response to the deaths of Muslims in Iraq.
The Uzbek rented a truck on October 22 so he could practice driving the vehicle but selected the night of Halloween for his attack, knowing there would be bigger crowds on the street.
His initial plan was to follow the West Side Highway as far south as possible before pro- ceeding to the Brooklyn Bridge.
“Saipov wanted to kill as many people as he could,” reads the complaint. “Saipov wanted to display ISIL flags in the front and the back of the attack, but decided against it because he did not want to draw attention to himself.”
In the event he was stopped when he crashed into a school bus. He leapt from the vehicle shouting “Allahu Akbar” but was unable to reach the bag of knives he brought with him.
Five Argentinian tourists, a Belgian, a New Yorker and a New Jersey man were killed in the attack, New York’s deadliest since 9/11.
Saipov entered no plea during his court appearance and faces the death penalty if found guilty. He was charged under federal law; New York state laws do not allow for execution.
Lawyers warned that Mr Trump’s intervention in the case could allow the defence to argue his words tainted the jury pool. “Mr President, we all know he should get the death penalty,” Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor in New York, wrote on Twitter. “But when *you* say it, it makes it harder for [Department of Justice] to make that happen.”
Mr Trump has already set off one political storm by announcing he wanted to end the green card lottery, the route Saipov used to gain permanent residence in the US.
People who knew the married father-of-three said they had no inkling that he could be capable of terrorism.
Mirrakhmat Muminov, another Uzbek immigrant, described a hothead rather than a radical.
“He had the habit of disagreeing with everybody,” said Mr Muminov, who knew Saipov soon after he arrived in the US.
“He was not happy with his life.”
Authorities believe Saipov acted alone. But the FBI said it was questioning a second Uzbek man, Mukammadzoir Kadirov, 32.