Jyllands-Posten plotter found guilty in New York

A Pakistani man faces life in prison after being convicted in New York of involvement in an Al Qaeda plot to carry out terror attacks in Denmark, Britain, and the United States, US authorities said Wednesday.

 

Abid Naseer, 28, is to be sentenced at a later date after being found guilty by a federal jury in New York following his extradition to the United States from Britain, a statement said.

 

Prosecutors said Naseer and other Al-Qaeda operatives had planned to attack the Copenhagen offices of Jyllands-Posten newspaper, a busy shopping mall in Manchester, England and the New York subway.

 

Three other men have already been convicted in connection with the conspiracy, which prosecutors said had been intended to "send a message to the United States and its allies."

 

"Today's verdict sends an even more powerful message in response: the United States will stop at nothing in order to hold those who plot to kill and maim in the name of religion accountable for their grievous crimes," government prosecutor Loretta Lynch said.

 

Naseer was arrested in Britain in April 2009 with several plotters. A search of an Internet cafe he had frequented revealed exchanges with an Al-Qaeda handler and downloaded jihadi anthems which called for "death in large numbers."

 

Naseer's was one of many foiled terror plots to have targeted Jyllands-Posten since the newspaper published 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad in September 2005, which caused angry and sometimes deadly protests worldwide. Kurt Westergaard, the artist behind the most controversial of the 12 cartoons, was targeted in a failed murder attempt at his home in 2010 and American-born terrorist David Headley was behind a 2009 plot to storm the newspaper's offices and behead journalists. 

 

Jyllands-Posten has been under heightened security alert since the January terror attacks in Paris. 

 

Naseer faces life in prison when he is sentenced at a later date.