NEW YORK — The father of an admitted Colorado terrorist was sentenced to 4½ years in prison Friday after he was convicted of destroying evidence and lying to investigators to cover up his son’s plot to attack New York City’s subways in 2009 as one of a trio of suicide bombers.
Mohammed Wali Zazi, 56, of Aurora could have faced up to 40 years, but his attorneys argued for probation because they said he was trying to protect his family and had no idea what his son was up to.
His son, Najibullah Zazi, also of Aurora, admitted that he returned from a Pakistan trip to Colorado and practiced making bombs using common beauty supplies. He then drove to New York City in September 2009 with plans to attack the subway system in a “martyrdom operation” before he learned he was being watched by the FBI. The plot was sanctioned by al-Qaeda but thwarted by authorities.
The elder Zazi was found guilty of conspiracy and obstruction of justice at a trial detailing the unraveling of a working-class family of Afghan-Americans amid chilling allegations of homegrown terrorism. He clawed his way to a fairly comfortable life in the U.S., hoping to give his children what he didn’t experience: a life without struggle.
And he refused to believe, even at his sentencing, that his son was plotting an attack. He gave a long statement in Pashto through an interpreter saying his family was victimized. “I believe that my son was pressured,” he said. “I don’t think that he was involved in any wrongdoing. I am sorry.”
He said he feared his ill wife would not be able to support their children without him and that the family might have to return to Afghanistan.
“I ask forgiveness from all of you,” he said. “I had a trial in here, and the jury convicted me, but the jury did not hear everything.”
U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said he understood why Zazi did what he did. “What wouldn’t a parent do for a child?” he asked. But Gleeson said the lies hindered a terrorism investigation, and Zazi needed to be punished. “When someone is going to bomb the New York City subway system, every lie matters,” he said.
