United States prosecutors requested
the death penalty for Uzbek Sayfullo Saipov
, who in 2017 killed eight people in New York, including five Argentines, judicial sources reported.
The final phase of the trial against Saipov began this Monday in a federal court in the Southern District of that city, after he
was found guilty at the end of last January.
It is the first time under the government of President Joe Biden that the Department of Justice has requested the death penalty for a convicted person.
A law enforcement officer walks past a crime scene Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, the day after a driver struck people on a riverfront bike path near the World Trade Center.
AP photo.
Despite the fact that the administration of the Democratic president declared a moratorium on all federal executions, if Saipov receives the sentence he could be executed during a new presidency or if the current one lifts that measure.
The same 12 jurors who convicted Saipov of various murder and terrorism charges on January 26 returned to court on Monday in this second phase to hear arguments at the opening hearing to decide his sentence.
"We will ask to impose the death penalty, not because it is easy, but because
it is (the) appropriate sentence in this case
," prosecutor Amanda Houle said, according to the AFP news agency.
Saipov, 35, was driving a rented van in a Manhattan bike lane as New Yorkers prepared to celebrate Halloween on October 31, 2017. Among the dead were a group of five Argentine friends.
Offerings in the place where the five Argentines were killed.
AFP photo.
At least 12 other people were injured before police shot Saipov in the abdomen.
This was
the deadliest attack in New York since September 11, 2001
, when al Qaeda members hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center.
Saipov said he acted on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
The jury will have to reach a unanimous decision, which Saipov will be able to appeal.
New York abolished the death penalty at the state level, and his last execution was in 1963.
"Due to the rescheduling that took place, we were able to learn that it is very possible that this will take at least two weeks of scheduled activity; there was great difficulty in bringing all the witnesses, considering that they are going to bring Saipov's family, who comes from Uzbekistan, as witnesses." , explained to Télam the lawyer Juan Félix Marteau.
The Argentine lawyer represents the widow and children of Hernán Mendoza, one of the victims of the attack perpetrated by Saipov, in the trial.
A friends trip that ended in tragedy
Hernan Ferruchi, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij, Ivan Brajckovic, Juan Pablo Trevisan, Hernán Mendoza, Diego Angelini and Ariel Benvenuto.
AP photo.
Mendoza had traveled to New York with several of his high school classmates, in Rosario,
to celebrate their 30th anniversary
.
Along with him Diego Angelini, Alejandro Pagnucco, Ariel Erlij and Hernán Ferruchi died, while Martín Marro was wounded.
Nicholas Cleves, 23, of New York, and Darren Drake, 32, of New Milford, New Jersey, were the two Americans killed.
And the eighth victim was Ann-Laure Decalt, a 31-year-old Belgian citizen.
Saipov, who
was detained by a policeman as he tried to flee the scene of the attack
, is an immigrant from Uzbekistan who, according to what he said in his first statements, carried out the attack to join IS.
look also
They kill a priest with a machete and leave several injured in a church in Spain: they investigate an "alleged terrorist attack"
The reaction of the families of the murdered Rosario after the conviction of the Uzbek who ran over them with a truck in New York
