Florida brothers sentenced for plot to detonate bomb in New York City
By Zachary Fagenson
MIAMI (Reuters) - Two Florida brothers, one of whom said he bicycled around New York City to scope out targets, were sentenced on Thursday to prison for plotting to explode a bomb in the city in 2012, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Raees Qazi was sentenced to 35 years and Sheheryar Qazi to 20 years. The two had also assaulted two deputy U.S. marshals while in custody, the Justice Department said in a statement.
The Pakistani-born brothers, aged 22 and 32 respectively, had pleaded guilty to federal terrorism charges in March and were sentenced in court in the U.S. Southern District of Florida.
Both naturalized U.S. citizens, they were given the maximum prison terms, to be followed by years of supervised release.
The brothers, who were living in Fort Lauderdale at the time of their arrest in 2012 and were accused of trying to support al Qaeda by using a weapon of mass destruction, never carried out an attack.
Raees Qazi, the younger brother, traveled to New York in November 2012 with the hope of finding a job to make enough money to build an explosive, according to court testimony from an FBI agent.
He told investigators after his arrest that he bicycled around New York City prospecting targets, but never chose one and returned home after running out of money, according to prosecutors.
During the hearing at which he pleaded guilty, he admitted to using an al Qaeda online publication to build an explosive from Christmas tree light bulbs.
Sheheryar Qazi, a former taxi driver, supported the plot by paying bills, and providing a computer and cell phone, prosecutors said.
In calls to his brother, Raees Qazi asked about the size of crowds at Times Square, Wall Street and at some New York City theaters, the FBI said.
Both brothers pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to assault a federal employee. Raees Qazi also pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to terrorists.
“Today’s sentencing of the Qazi brothers represents the final chapter for two men who wished to bring harm and mass destruction to Americans on U.S. soil,” Stacia Hylton, director of the U.S. Marshals Service, said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards; Editing by Letitia Stein and Mohammad Zargham)
