A Manhattan federal court is set to hand down sentence against the man who killed 8 people by running over a bike lane in 2017

By Larry Neumeister - The Associated Press

A federal court in Manhattan, New York, is scheduled to issue on Wednesday the sentence against an Islamic extremist convicted of killing eight people, including several Argentines, when he ran over a bike lane with a van on Halloween in 2017, in a hearing in which the families of the fatalities will take the floor.

The sentencing announcement comes after a jury in March rejected the death penalty for Sayfullo Saipov, a 35-year-old Uzbek citizen who had resided in New Jersey, leaving him with a mandatory life sentence.

The driver of the van collided with a school bus after ploughing into dozens of people on a bike path in lower Manhattan. The image, taken on November 1, 2017, shows how the vehicles were left after the impact. Andres Kudacki / AP

Prosecutors urged Judge Vernon S. Broderick to impose eight consecutive life sentences — one for each deceased — and an additional 260 years in prison, according to a filing brief.

"Saipov is a brazen terrorist, a proud murderer who deserves no clemency and should be punished to the full extent of the law," prosecutors argued.

"After months of planning a heinous terrorist attack, Saipov got what he wanted: a brutal carnage of innocent people, shattered lives and families, and terror in New York City. In fact, the only thing Saipov was denied was even more death and destruction because he collided with a school bus before reaching the Brooklyn Bridge."

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Saipov carried out his attack on Halloween 2017, when he ran over a bike path in lower Manhattan frequented by residents and tourists with his rented truck.

Five Argentine tourists, two Americans and a Belgian woman were killed, and 18 others were seriously injured.

The man was shot dead by a police officer and immediately arrested after getting out of his truck shouting "God is great!" in Arabic and waving paint guns and pellets in the air.

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Prosecutors said he smiled when he asked FBI agents who questioned him in a hospital room after the attack if they could hang an Islamic State flag on the walls.

At the trial, his relatives asked that he be sentenced to life imprisonment, stating that they hoped he would realize what he had done and express remorse. They wanted him to return to being the passive person they remembered before he became obsessed with the online propaganda published by Islamic State, they said.

Saipov, a former long-haul truck driver, moved legally to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 and lived in Ohio and Florida before joining his family in Paterson, New Jersey.

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His attorney, David Patton, told jurors that his actions were "senseless, horrific and unjustified."

Saipov, who did not testify at his trial, will have a chance to speak at the sentencing hearing.