A judge criticized the unrepentant and stubborn Islamic extremist’s “callous and cowardly” acts as he received ten life sentences and an additional 260 years in prison on Wednesday for running eight people over with a truck on a bike path in Manhattan on Halloween of 2017.
“The conduct, in this case, is among the worst, if not the worst, I’ve ever seen,” said U.S. Sayfullo Saipov, who allegedly carried out a terrorist act on behalf of the Islamic State group, according to District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, who delivered the sentence.
The sentence was intended to emphasize the gravity of the terrorist attack.
After a jury rejected the death penalty in March, a life sentence was required; nevertheless, the prosecution had requested that Broderick give two concurrent life sentences and eight consecutive life sentences.
They also sought an additional 260 years to send a strong message to other terrorists with similar ideologies. And the judge acted in that manner.
When allowed to speak, Saipov claimed that if a single tissue were filled with the tears shed by victims and family members during the six months of the trial.
Broderick cited this act of defiance. But, according to Saipov, the courtroom would be filled with the tears and blood of Muslims who had been brutally murdered worldwide.
Saipov spent most of the hour speaking through a translator in a rambling rant about the origins of religions.
When he was done, the relative of one of the female victims rose and yelled, “The only act of the devil here is the deed you perpetrated!”
The court told Saipov about the victims, “You did not, and you do not care about their pain and suffering.” Even Saipov’s family members, including his father, he said, were ashamed and “traumatized and forever changed.”
Saipov, a 35-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan and former resident of New Jersey was scheduled to serve his jail term for the murder of two foreigners and a New Yorker on October 31, 2017, in Florence, Colorado’s highest security facility.
As 19 victims and relatives of those slain in the terror attack spoke, occasionally through tears, expressing lingering pain and suffering, the man’s head was bowed, and his eyes were lowered.
The victim’s father, Frank Decadt, expressed his wish to Saipov that “one day you will understand the extent of horror you have inflicted on so many people.”
Vanesa Erlij Wittenberg remarked, “Only a monster can do what you did. My brother was an amazing person.”
In contrast, she said, “You are a shame to your family, especially your kids.”
In her wheelchair, Marion Van Reeth, amputated both legs in the attack, sat before Saipov and said to him, “I will never be able to walk as you can.”
She said: “I have a question for you. Saipov is listening to a translation of the proceedings through earbuds. Are you still sure your crimes were justified after spending so much time in prison?
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a statement following the sentencing in which he said that the account Department will “continue to defend the American people from threats of terrorism vigorously and will work tirelessly to bring those who perpetrate terrorist attacks to justice.”
In addition to the 18 people who suffered significant injuries, five visitors from Argentina, two Americans, and a Belgian woman also perished.
Saipov emerged from his truck shouting “God is great” in Arabic and waved paintball and pellet weapons before being shot by a policeman and brought into the jail.
He allegedly grinned while FBI agents questioned him in a hospital room following the attack and asked if they may fly the flag of the Islamic State organization on the walls.
His family advocated for a life sentence during the trial, hoping he would one day understand what he had done and express regret.
Before being hooked on internet terrorism propaganda, they claimed he was expected.
Former long-haul truck driver Saipov entered the country legally in 2010 from Uzbekistan, living first in Florida and then Ohio before relocating to Paterson, New Jersey, to be with his family.
John Francis Patrick III, the trial’s jury foreperson, was present for the sentencing and stated that although the jury had initially supported the death penalty, “we felt another death will not help this matter at all.”
This defendant should understand the suffering of life.
He claimed that the horrible crime and the trial’s demonstrative evidence made it difficult to be a witness.
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