| ISIS Supporter Alimehmeti
Gets 22 Years From SDNY Judge Engelmayer
Citing Pocket Chainsaw
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- The
Source
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 6 – ISIS supporter Sajmir
Alimehmeti was sentenced to 22
years in prison on December 5,
after being arrested in 2016
with an ISIS flag and pocket
chainsaw in his Bronx
apartment.
After his arrest, he tried to
recruit others to ISIS using
material provide to him as
discovery while he was in the
Metropolitan Correctional
Center. He pled guilty to two
counts, but declined his
opportunity to speak during
his sentencing proceeding on
December 5.
U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said
that he would have sentenced
Alimehmeti to at last three
additional years if he had
gone to
trial.
This stands at odds with
statements by other judges,
including SDNY Judge Jed S.
Rakoff, who says defendants
should not be penalized for
speaking at, and presumably
for going to,
trial.
Alimehmeti's
mother was present in the
courtroom; his father
previously returned to Albania
from The Bronx and passed
away.
Judge Engelmayer
before announcing his sentence
described Alimehmeti has
having come to The Bronx from
Albania at age six and being
mocked for his hair and his
clothes. He joined an Albanian
gang and was arrested for
robbery, then for forcible
touching.
While imprisoned in the New
York State correctional
facility in Fishkill,
Alimehmeti became radicalized,
then began to recruit others.
He tried to go to the UK,
seeming to travel from there
to join ISIS in Syria.
But he was stopped at UK
airports, first with
nunchucks, the second time
based on a search of his phone
and laptop which found ISIS
images. So, Judge Engelmayer
said, Alimehmeti began to
assemble an arsenal for a
domestic attack. (His defense
lawyer noted that the knives
he had were bought on
Amazon.com).
But
where, Judge Engelmayer asked,
do you buy a pocket chainsaw?
And what would Alimehmeti have
used it for? The case is US
v. Alimehmeti, 16-cr-398
(Engelmayer). More on Patreon
here.
***
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