An alleged Islamic State group militant from Afghanistan was convicted on Wednesday of aiding the fear group that took credit score for a lethal suicide bombing at a Kabul airport, however a jury couldn’t agree on whether or not he bears some duty for that assault through the U.S. army’s chaotic withdrawal from the nation in 2021.
Mohammad Sharifullah faces a most jail sentence of 20 years after his one-count conviction in a world terrorism case that President Donald Trump heralded final yr throughout a speech to a joint session of Congress. Sharifullah didn’t testify at his weeklong trial.
Roughly 160 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members had been killed within the Aug. 26, 2021, assault on the airport, the place U.S. troops had been conducting an evacuation operation when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive gadget close to an entry level referred to as Abbey Gate.
A federal jury in Virginia convicted Sharifullah of offering materials assist to an Islamic State regional department referred to as ISIS-Ok. However the jurors deadlocked on whether or not any deaths on the airport “resulted from” that conspiracy. Sharifullah may have confronted a potential life sentence if the jury had unanimously determined that query.
Sharifullah didn’t seem to have any seen response to the decision. U.S. District Decide Anthony Trenga didn’t instantly set a date for Sharifullah’s sentencing.
The jury deliberated for roughly eight hours over two days. In a be aware to the choose, jurors indicated that they rapidly reached a unanimous resolution to convict Sharifullah of conspiracy however couldn’t agree on the component that would have considerably enhanced the severity of his sentence. The choose rejected a prosecutor’s request to present them extra time to deliberate.
Protection legal professional Lauren Rosen argued that prosecutors didn’t current any proof tying Sharifullah to the bombing apart from his personal phrases throughout hours of FBI questioning. Rosen mentioned Sharifullah instructed FBI brokers what he thought they needed to listen to, presumably as a result of he was afraid of being tortured in Pakistani custody earlier than he was delivered to the U.S.
“The issue was, he didn’t know a lot about what really occurred that day,” Rosen instructed jurors through the trial’s closing arguments. “The federal government has instructed you nothing about how this assault really occurred.”
Justice Division prosecutor Ryan White mentioned Sharifullah performed a vital function in planning the Abbey Gate bombing and was concerned in a number of different assaults by ISIS-Ok, together with its March 2024 assault at a Moscow live performance corridor that killed roughly 140 folks.
“The defendant thought nothing of killing,” White mentioned. “For him, it was simply one other day on the workplace.”
A overview by U.S. Central Command discovered that the Abbey Gate bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State group militant who had been launched from an Afghan jail by the Taliban. Sharifullah acknowledged the alleged bomber as an operative he had recognized whereas incarcerated, in keeping with an FBI affidavit.
A former Marine testified to Congress that he and others had noticed two potential suspects behaving suspiciously on the morning of the bombing however didn’t get permission to behave. Nonetheless, the Central Command overview concluded that the snipers hadn’t seen the precise bomber and that the assault was not preventable.
A prosecutor assigned to the Abbey Gate case was fired final yr after a right-wing commentator publicly criticized him over his work throughout President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration. Michael Ben’Ary’s ouster was a part of a broader purge of Justice Division veterans deemed to be insufficiently loyal to Trump, a Republican.
Throughout his most up-to-date presidential marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly condemned Biden for his function within the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal and blamed him for the Abbey Gate assault.
Biden’s White Home was following a withdrawal dedication and timeline that the primary Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020. A 2022 overview by a government-appointed particular investigator concluded selections made by each Trump and Biden had been the important thing components resulting in the speedy collapse of Afghanistan’s army and the Taliban takeover.
White, the prosecutor, mentioned Sharifullah instructed a journalist that he needed to “catch and kill the crusaders” from the U.S. for invading his nation after the Sept. 11, 2001, assaults.
“This case shouldn’t be sophisticated,” White mentioned. “The defendant instructed you every little thing you could know.”
Rosen mentioned U.S. authorities accepted ISIS propaganda at face worth when the group took duty for the airport bombing. She recommended that militants from a Taliban offshoot had been manning Abbey Gate and will have been concerned within the assault.
“You’ll be able to’t base your verdict on mere conjecture and hypothesis,” Rosen mentioned. “That’s what the prosecution is asking you to do.”
