He was convicted of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, conspiring to provide material support to al-Qaeda and with conspiring to use a destructive device.
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Abid Naseer was first arrested in 2009 in Britain with 11 other men suspected of preparing to attack the mall in Manchester, and was extradited to the United States from Britain in 2013.
Zazi pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and was the first witness in Naseer’s trial.
A terrorist who planned to bomb the Arndale Centre in Manchester has been jailed in the US.
United States authorities said he had been part of a plot to attack Manchester, NY City and Copenhagen.
“You’re a terrorist”, U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie told Naseer when announcing the sentence, Reuters reported. A week later, al-Qaeda carried out an attack on a hotel in Bamako, Mali, killing at least 19 people. Among the evidence presented before his conviction in the spring, prosecutors pointed out that Naseer had dropped out of classes after only a week.
“They planned to strike on Easter Weekend, the second busiest shopping day of the year, when between 40,000 and 90,000 people would have been in the targeted areas throughout the weekend”.
He was found guilty in March of being involved with the plots described by the US Department of Justice as being “directed by and co-ordinated with senior al-Qaeda leaders in Pakistan”.
Naseer denied any affiliation with al Qaeda or any plot, telling jurors that “terrorism is not compatible with Islam”.
Defense lawyer James Neuman appealed for a lesser sentence of under 30 years, saying that there was nothing in his background to suggest he was a hardened criminal.
Naseer arrived in the United Kingdom in 2006, exploiting “the educational visa system”, according to the press release.
Prosecutors believe that Abid Naseer, 29, from Peshawar, came within days of murdering hundreds of people in Manchester in spring 2009.
In early September 2009, after Medunjanin, Zazi and Ahmedzay had selected the NY City subway system as their target, Zazi emailed with “Ahmad” in Pakistan about the proper ingredients for the main charge explosive, which included flour and oil.
At trial, prosecutors used never-before publicised documents seized from the 2011 raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden as part of their case against Naseer and testimony from British MI5 officers who conducted surveillance on him.
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During the trial, five British secret agents testified against Naseer, wearing disguises to protect their identities.
