Suspect Pleads Guilty in New York Subway Bomb Plot
Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan immigrant and airport shuttle driver living in Colorado, pleaded guilty today in a conspiracy to detonate explosives in New York’s subway system.
Zazi pleaded guilty to three charges: conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to al-Qaida, in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., Agence France-Presse reports. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, the Wall Street Journal reports, although CNN said that the terms of the plea deal are sealed, and sentencing is set for June 25.
At his hearing, Zazi said he was recruited by al-Qaida when he traveled to Pakistan in 2008, and that he was taught to make explosives at a training camp there, the Wall Street Journal reports. He said he drove from Colorado to New York in September and hoped to assemble the bombs there. Zazi was arrested in Colorado in September.
Suspects Adis Medunjanin and Zasrein Ahmedzay were arrested in the subway bomb plot last month, and Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty, Bloomberg reports. Earlier this month, Zazi’s father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors say he destroyed or hid eyeglasses, masks, liquid chemicals and containers sought by investigators. Zazi family friend Ahamad Wais Afzali has also been charged with lying to officials about Najibullah Zazi’s activities.
