Quazi Nafis Gets 30 Years In Prison For Federal Reserve Bank Bomb Plot Case
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The man who tried to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank Building in lower Manhattan has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to terrorism charges.
"I'm ashamed. I'm lost. I tried to do a terrible thing. I alone am responsible for what I've done. Please forgive me,'' Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis said during his sentencing Friday in Brooklyn federal court.
Judge Carol Bagely Amon accepted his remorse as genuine, but added that there's no doubt Nafis intended to bring down the Federal Reserve Bank building and kill everyone in it, along with scores of innocent people on the outside, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
Quazi Nafis Gets 30 Years In Prison For Federal Reserve Bank Bomb Plot Case
Nafis was arrested last October in an FBI sting operation.
Federal prosecutors said the Bangladesh native was in the process of trying to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb packed into a van parked on Liberty Street near the building.
The explosive device had been supplied by an undercover FBI agent and was never operable, authorities said.
An FBI affidavit said Nafis wanted to "destroy America" and that "the most efficient way to accomplish this goal was to target America's economy."
Right before attempting to set off the bomb, Nafis made a video in which he said, "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," authorities said.
Nafis was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
He pleaded guilty in February and also apologized then, saying "I no longer support violent Jihad. I deeply and sincerely regret my involvement with this case."
Nafis faced a possible life sentence, but the government and judge agreed that 30 years was sufficient, Cornell reported.
Amon told Nafis that if he returns to Bangladesh upon his release, he is never to come back to the United States.
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