NY1.com

  66º

You are not signed in  |  Sign in here  |  Help

You're viewing a lite version of NY1.com

Time Warner Cable customers: Sign in with your TWC ID for video access.

Get my TWC ID. | Get TWC service. | Read the FAQ.

Updated 08/06/2010 08:10 PM

Terror Suspect From Queens Pleads Not Guilty To Subway Bomb Plot

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Adis Medunjanin, a former Queens resident, pleaded not guilty Friday to plotting in a local subway bombing plot.

Medunjanin, seen above, a Bosnian immigrant who lived in Flushing, appeared in Brooklyn federal court where he was arraigned on a revised indictment that added some new charges against him.

According to the indictment, Medunjanin and another suspect in the case, Zarein Ahmedzay, had been recruited in 2008 to receive terrorist training in Pakistan.

Medunjanin was already facing charges that include conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and commit murder abroad.

Prosecutors also say Medunjanin tried to crash into another car on the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge as a form of a suicide attack in January.

After the incident, Medunjanin allegedly called authorities and said, "We love death more than you love life." He was then arrested.

The defense said it will fight all the charges vigorously.

"The government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt," said defense attorney Robert Gottlieb. "So today, we, as everyone witnessed, took a clear step in that process, to see whether or not the government can actually prove, beyond a reasonable doubt by way of evidence, that Mr. Medunjanin is guilty of serious charges."

Najibullah Zazi, left, and Zarein Ahmedzay, right, have pleaded guilty to charges of planning to bomb the subway system.
Najibullah Zazi, left, and Zarein Ahmedzay, right, have pleaded guilty to charges of planning to bomb the subway system.
Gottlieb said he will try to get some evidence against his client thrown out, saying that the FBI spoke to his client without his being present.

Ahmedzay and terror suspect Najibullah Zazi have already pleaded guilty to charges of planning to detonate bombs in the subway plot and are awaiting sentencing.

FBI officials say the three terror suspects were recruited by Adnan Shukrijumah, a high-ranking al-Qaida operative.

Shukrijumah, a U.S. resident who was born in Saudi Arabia, has become al-Qaida's new chief of global operations, and took over the position once held by September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, according to the FBI.

High-ranking al-Qaida operative and U.S. resident Adnan Shukrijumah.
High-ranking al-Qaida operative and U.S. resident Adnan Shukrijumah.
Officials say Shukrijumah is the first al-Qaida leader living within American society who was been put in charge of planning attacks.

Shukrijumah was indicted last month on charges linking him to the failed subway bomb plot.

He lived in the United States for more than 15 years with permanent resident status, and spent time in the city, where his father, who is deceased, was an imam for a mosque on Church Avenue in Brooklyn. Shukrijumah's father was also a translator for the blind sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Shukrijumah later moved to South Florida.

The FBI says they have been searching for Shukrijumah since 2003.

There's currently a $5 million bounty on his head.