New York bomb plotter gets life in prison

A US man convicted of being part of a New York trio planning to detonate suicide bombs in the city to avenge the US war in Afghanistan was sentenced to life in prison Friday. Adis Medunjanin, 34, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to life plus 95 years for his role in the plot, which targeted the city subway system. It was never carried out. Prosecutors had asked for the life sentence, saying Medunjanin "committed a host of heinous crimes aimed at killing and maiming his fellow American citizens in order to alter and take revenge for American foreign policy." At trial earlier this year, prosecutors described how Medunjanin and two former New York high school friends planned to bomb either the subway, Times Square, or another packed location. They were "within days of carrying out this attack," according to the prosecution. The Bosnia-born Medunjanin, whose family fled to the United States during the war with Serbia in the 1990s, was also convicted of conspiring to murder US military personnel abroad, taking military training from al-Qaeda, and attempting to commit terrorism across national boundaries, among other charges. The other two men in the alleged plot, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, have already pleaded guilty and testified against their old friend in hopes that cooperation with prosecutors would earn them lighter sentences. Their sentencing is scheduled for next year.