Sentencing delayed for Kenyan convicted of planning terror attack in US

Abdullah was convicted of participa ting in a plot to hijack a commercial aircraft and crash it into a skyscraper in the US. The plan, however, never materialised following his arrest in the Philippines in July 2019. 

Appearing before Judge Analisa Torres on Monday, Abdullah appealed to the judge for new lawyers after representing himself in the previous trial.

He also declined the standby counsel offered by the judge, citing that he sought to start with a clean slate. 

"I don't want these two lawyers to represent me. I want to start fresh," Abdullah said as quoted by ABC News, a global media company based in the US. 

Following his request, the judge adjourned the trial and announced that she would appoint new counsel for the convict. 

Abdullah,34, was set to be sentenced after he was found guilty on six counts; conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, providing the said materials, planning to murder US nationals, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, plotting to destroy aircraft and planning to commit acts of terrorism. 

State prosecutors want the judge to imprison Abdullah for life; citing that he poses a threat to innocent lives across the world. 

According to court documents, Abdullah sought to recreate al Qaeda's September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

He learnt the art of firing AK-47 assault rifles and using deadly explosives under the al Shabaab's tutelage in Somalia. 

The convict then travelled to the Philippines and enrolled in a flight school where he acquired a private pilot's licence and was on the cusp of getting his commercial pilot's licence before authorities caught wind of the plot and arrested him. 

At the same time, prosecutors noted that when Abdullah was in the Philippines, his friends carried out the DusitD2 complex attack in Nairobi that left at least 21 people dead. 

"I commend the tireless work of our federal law enforcement partners and the career national security prosecutors of this Office," US Attorney Damian Williams stated in November last year. 

"This effort has been carried forward by generations of agents and prosecutors who never relented in their efforts to bring Abdullah to justice and keep this nation safe. Thanks to their work and today’s verdict, Abdullah will now serve a lengthy sentence in federal prison."