A day before the start of the trial in a Brooklyn Federal court of four men accused of plotting to blow up fuel lines at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, there has been a new development. Guyanese Abdul Nur, former handy man at a popular city cambio, and Abdul Kadir, a former member of parliament, Russell De Freitas, a U.S citizen and native of Guyana, along with Kareem Ibrahim, a Trinidad national, are facing a charge of conspiracy which could see them facing life in prison if convicted.
But news reports out of New York is that Nur pleaded guilty to a lesser charge yesterday, a decision which spares him a possible life sentence and could see him instead facing up to 15 years in prison.
Nur will be sentenced by Judge Dora Irizarry on August 5, while today the judge will begin the trial of Kadir and De Freitas, with the main witness expected to testify next week.
Ibrahim’s case was de-linked after he became ill, having gone on a hunger strike while in prison and it is unclear whether he will stand trial today, or the court will declare him unfit.
According to a Sacramento Bee news report yesterday, Nur, in heavily accented English, and sometimes through tears, admitted that he provided material support of terrorists, a charge that was not in the original indictment against him.
The Guyanese, in the lesser charge, admitted telling co-defendants Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Russell De Freitas that he would provide them with protection and guidance on a trip to Trinidad and Tobago in May 2007 to buy supplies.
“I understand the destruction of the fuel and planes was to cause major economic loss in the U.S.,” Nur said in a statement which he read. His plea, however, did not make mention plotting to kill people.
An indictment unsealed in 2007 said the men hoped to “cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks” by using explosives to ignite a fuel pipeline feeding JFK and to destroy the airport and parts of Queens, where the line runs underground. De Freitas, the suspected head of the operation and the only U.S. citizen, worked at JFK as a cargo handler and retired in 1995.
The plot, which the men code-named `Chicken Farm’, never got past the planning stages, authorities said.
Nur and the other men were brought to New York in 2008 after being taken into custody in Trinidad, where they spent more than a year fighting extradition. A judge there rejected arguments that they couldn’t get a fair trial in the United States.
Nur’s attorney, Daniel Nobel, described his ties to the other defendants, with whom he became associated through a mosque in Trinidad, as weak. He said too Nur was not a danger to the public.
“While guilty of the charge, he did not represent a threat to America,” Nur’s attorney added.
Nobel said his client will not testify or provide any details against the remaining defendants.
Nur hopes to return to Guyana someday, Nobel said. He described his client as a poor man who is well-liked in his community.
Nur, Kadir and Ibrahim were extradited from Trinidad after losing a fight against being taken to the United States to stand trial.