Saifullo Saipov, who plowed into cyclists and pedestrians with a truck on a crowded Manhattan bike lane, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison after hearing statements from about 20 relatives and victims Was.
“This evil killer has destroyed so many lives,” Monica Missio, the mother of victim Nicolas Cleves, said at a hearing before Saipov, who was convicted in January on murder and terrorism charges, was sentenced without the possibility of parole.
Eight people, including tourists from Argentina and Belgium, and 12 were injured in the attack.
“It disgusts me that he can get up every day and my son can’t,” Missio said. “Your barbarism and cruelty fill me with rage.”
Prosecutors said Saipov used a Home Depot rental truck to run over people along the Hudson River on Manhattan’s West Side in hopes that the attack would help him gain membership in the Islamic State.
Addressing the court before sentencing, an unrepentant Saipov praised Islamic State and suggested that its victims suffered less than those of Muslims around the world.
“I was here in court during the three months of the trial, and I saw and heard from the victims, family and friends,” he said. “The court was filled with the tears and blood of the Muslim population.”
Many of those killed and injured in the attack were foreign nationals visiting New York, the most populous city in the United States. Most of the people who spoke at the hearing came from Argentina and Belgium.
Saipov is expected to serve his sentence at Colorado’s Supermax facility, the most secure US federal prison, where he will spend 22 to 23 hours a day alone in a cell with a concrete bed.
