Times Square subway bomber gets life in prison

Judge called attack ‘truly barbaric and heinous crime’

A man who carried out a bomb attack in a pedestrian tunnel beneath Times Square in 2017 has been sentenced to life in prison.

Akayed Ullah, a 31-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant, detonated a pipe bomb that mostly misfired in a busy New York City subway station.

Ullah was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Richard J Sullivan on Thursday, who said a life sentence was “appropriate” for the “barbaric and heinous crime”.

He was seriously burned and caused minor injuries to three other people when he detonated the improvised device strapped to his chest in an underground walkway between stations.

Prosecutors said that he wanted to maim or kill commuters as part of a “lone wolf” terrorist attack on behalf of Isis and sought the life term.

Defence lawyer Amy Gallicchio said Ullah deserved no more than the mandatory 35 years in prison citing the fact he had “lived lawfully and peacefully” until the attack.

She blamed the attempt on a “personal crisis that left him isolated, depressed, vulnerable and suicidal”. He claimed during the trial that he had only intended to kill himself.

"Your honour, what I did, it was wrong," Ullah said before the sentence. "I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, I'm deeply sorry ... I do not support harming innocent people."

Prosecutors argued Ullah would not have worn a bomb had he wanted to kill only himself and showed jurors Ullah’s post-arrest statements and social media comments.

Reporting by the Associated Press