US man jailed for plotting to behead anti-Islam blogger

NEW YORK: A Massachusetts man inspired by the Islamic State extremist group was sentenced to 28 years in prison on Tuesday for terror charges after plotting to behead a controversial American anti-Islam crusader and blogger.

David Wright, 28, was convicted by a US federal jury in Boston in October of conspiring to provide material support to IS, conspiring to commit acts of terrorism and obstruct justice, and for obstructing justice.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, he swore allegiance to IS and plotted to kill blogger Pamela Geller with his uncle Usaamah Rahim, who was shot and killed after lunging toward police and FBI agents with a knife in Boston in 2015.

A third man, Rhode Island resident Nicholas Rovinski, pleaded guilty last year.

“Wright will be in jail for the rest of my life and that is good,” 59-yearold Geller tweeted on Tuesday in response to the sentencing.

US prosecutors say Wright created a ‘martyrdom’ operation cell and in 2015 published a document that urged the ‘ Lions of America’ to kill Americans and identified the New Yorker blogger as the fi rst beheading target.

British- born IS jihadist and propagandist, Junaid Hussain, whom the Pentagon said recruited IS sympathisers to carry out lone wolf attacks in the west, provided Rahim with encrypted details about Geller, prosecutors said. — AFP