Pakistani man who plotted to bomb Manchester 'deserves 30 years to life'

Naseer, 29, was born in Peshawar and came from a well-educated family.

NEW YORK: A Pakistani man convicted in March in a US court for conspiring with al Qaeda to bomb a shopping centre in Manchester, England should spend 30 years to life in prison, US prosecutors said.

According to a letter filed late on Tuesday, prosecutors said Abid Naseer poses an “extreme danger” to society given his “continued commitment” to cause mass casualties designed to rival the September 11 attacks.

Naseer, 29, was arrested in April 2009 by British authorities for planning to bomb the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester.



The 29-year-old who had represented himself at trial is scheduled to be sentenced on November 17 by Judge Raymond Dearie in the US district court in Brooklyn, New York.

The attack in Manchester was one of three that US prosecutors said affiliated cells were investigating on, including attacks against the New York City subway and a Copenhagen newspaper.

Najibullah Zazi, who pleaded guilty to the New York plot, testified against Naseer that both men coordinated their plans through coded emails with an al Qaeda operative in Pakistan.

Naseer was raised in Peshawar and said he came from a happy childhood in a stable family and was good at cricket. Prosecutors said this made his the “rare case” where no extenuating circumstances mitigated his crimes.

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“He was given every opportunity in life, rendering his behaviour all the more abhorrent,” prosecutors said. “There is simply nothing in the record, nor in the defendant’s own statements about his family and upbringing, that allows the blame for the defendant’s choice to join al-Qaeda to be placed anywhere other than squarely at his own two feet.”

A lawyer representing Naseer, James Neuman, said on October 20 in a court filing that his case called for a sentence “significantly below” 30 years.



He claimed his client’s background, and support from family and friends, left “every reason to conclude that Naseer will never commit another crime, let alone anything related to terrorism.”

On Wednesday, Neuman declined to comment on the government’s sentencing request.

This article originally appeared on The Guardian.