No sentence reduction for man convicted in 2015 Texas attack – KXAN Austin
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from: JACQUES BILLEAUD, Associated Press
Posted: Oct 19, 2021 / 7:24 PM CDT
Updated: 10/19/2021 / 8:02 p.m. CDT
FILE – This undated file photo, provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department, shows Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem. A judge on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, refused to reduce the 30-year sentence for the Arizona man convicted of aiding and abetting planning an attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in suburban Dallas in 2015 Although one of his convictions was dismissed after it became known, the FBI had withheld surveillance videos during his trial. (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department via AP, File)
PHOENIX (AP) – A judge has refused to reduce the 30-year sentence for an Arizona man convicted of aiding and abetting planning an attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in suburban Dallas in 2015, despite the fact that one of his convictions was overturned after her conviction found that the FBI withheld surveillance videos during his trial.
Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem’s lawyers, who was convicted on Tuesday in response to the dismissal of the charges, requested a 7½-year prison sentence. However, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton declined to reduce his sentence for his convictions related to the attack on the anti-Islam event in Garland, Texas.
Kareem, an American-born Muslim convert, was convicted of conspiracy to provide the weapons used in the attack by two friends and of conspiracy with both friends to support the Islamic State terrorist group.
His friends, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, were killed in a police shootout outside an event. A security guard was also injured. The competition featured cartoons that are offensive to Muslims.
Bolton pointed to the severity of Kareem’s remaining convictions, raised public safety concerns if he were released early, and wondered if Kareem would step back from his radical religious beliefs as he got older.
Although Kareem was not in Texas during the attack, Bolton said the jury found that Kareem knew Simpson and Soofi were planning the attack on behalf of Islamic State and trained them on the use and cleaning of the guns.
Kareem’s conviction for transporting firearms with intent to commit a crime – for which he received a 10-year sentence – was overturned in late 2019 because the FBI failed to record the video that was recorded outside of Simpson and Soofi’s Phoenix apartment issued.
The footage showed the couple in religious clothing as they left for Texas to carry out the attack. Soofi carried a pistol on his waist, and both men carried duffel bags to Soofi’s car.
The FBI didn’t release the video until nearly three years after the trial.
Bolton had previously ruled that the government had violated an obligation to produce evidence that could be used by defendants to support their innocence or to challenge the credibility of prosecution witnesses.
The judge, who concluded that the failure to release the footage was not an act of bad faith but rather an oversight, granted Kareem a new trial on the charge in question. Prosecutors later declined to try Kareem again on the charges.
Kareem was convicted of his other four major felony convictions, including two involving guns.
“The fact that the crime has been dismissed and the government has chosen not to go to court doesn’t change what I consider a just punishment,” Bolton said.
Before the new sentence was imposed, Kareem admitted shooting with Simpson and Soofi in the desert in the months leading up to the attack, but claimed he was innocent.
He also said he did not share the radical ideology of Simpson and Soofi. “I’m not following this,” said Kareem. “I love my country.”
Kareem’s attorneys pointed out that the surveillance camera in front of Simpson and Soofi’s apartment did not capture any footage of Kareem, arguing that the footage raised doubts in the trial, as a person would be expected to act as a trainer and motivator for one Attack serves, been in the apartment to clarify details at the last minute.
Authorities said Kareem watched videos with the two friends showing violence by jihadists, encouraged them to launch violent attacks to support the terrorist group, and researched trips to the Middle East to join Islamic State fighters.
They said Kareem expressed his desire to strap a bomb on his body to kill infidels and celebrated the 2015 attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which extremists claimed it was about retaliation for publishing cartoons the prophet Mohammed.
The camera in front of Simpsons and Soofi’s apartment wasn’t the first surprise federal revelation since Kareem’s conviction in March 2016.
In the months following his trial, authorities first disclosed that an undercover FBI agent had exchanged social media messages with Simpson days before the attack and was in a vehicle outside the Garland Convention Center when the attack began.
When the agent drove around Simpsons and Soofi’s car, which had stopped abruptly, the attackers got out and opened fire with military rifles. The agent drove away and was stopped by the police. Prosecutors said the information about the undercover officer was kept secret at the time of the trial.
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