Opinion ID: 781722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The World Trade Center Bombing Trial

Text: 294 Yousef and Ismoil were ultimately charged in eleven counts relating to their participation in the World Trade Center bombing. Specifically, Yousef and Ismoil were both charged with: conspiracy to commit the crimes listed below, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count One); bombing a building used in interstate and foreign commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(i) and 2 (Count Two); bombing property and vehicles owned, used, and leased by an agency of the United States, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(f) and 2 (Count Three); transporting a bomb in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 844(d) and 2 (Count Four); two counts of bombing or destroying a vehicle used in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 33, 34, and 2 (Counts Five and Six); assaulting federal officers (three Secret Service Agents injured by the bomb), in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 111 and 2 (Count Eight); and two counts of using and carrying a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence (one count for using the bomb in the assault on federal officers and one count for using and carrying the bomb during and in relation to the conspiracy to bomb the World Trade Center), in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c) and 2 (Counts Nine and Ten). Yousef and Ismoil were charged separately, in Counts Seven and Eleven respectively, with traveling and using facilities in interstate and/or foreign commerce to commit crimes of violence, in violation of the Travel Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1952. 295 The Government's theory at trial was that Yousef was an explosives expert who masterminded the plot to bomb the World Trade Center, and that he and Ismoil drove together in a rented Ryder van from New Jersey and parked the van in the public parking level of the World Trade Center. The principal evidence against Yousef at trial was the post-arrest statements he made to FBI agents en route from Pakistan to the United States, as well as testimony and evidence that linked him to several apartments he shared with defendant Salameh and to activities directly connected to the charged offenses. The last apartment the two men shared was located at 40 Pamrapo Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey (the Pamrapo Apartment). Yousef's fingerprints were found in the Pamrapo Apartment and in the storage shed where investigators discovered several chemicals believed to have been used in assembling the bomb. Yousef's fingerprints were also found on the bomb-making materials that were part of the terrorist kit that had been found in the suitcase carried by defendant Ajaj when he traveled with Yousef from Pakistan to the United States in September 1992. In addition, telephone records and surveillance photos established that, prior to the bombing, Yousef placed telephone calls to Ajaj, who was in a local jail in Maryland, to Ismoil, and to City Chemical Corporation, the chemical company where many of the chemicals found in the storage shed were purchased. Finally, a neighbor of the Pamrapo Apartment identified Yousef as one of the tenants of the apartment, the president of City Chemical identified Yousef as the man who purchased chemicals found in the storage shed, and an employee at the storage shed testified that a man fitting Yousef's description waited there with Salameh for a delivery of hydrogen gas cylinders two days before the bombing. 296 Evidence at trial against Ismoil included the statements he made to Jordanian authorities after his arrest in Jordan; hotel and airline records establishing that he traveled from Dallas to New York a few days before the bombing and then flew to Jordan from New York on the day of the bombing; records from the Harbor Motor Inn in Brooklyn, N.Y., showing that the day before the bombing, Ismoil registered under his own name and stated that he was driving a vane [sic]; telephone records and surveillance photos showing telephone calls made to Ismoil by Yousef and others; and Ismoil's fingerprints found on a telephone book and a catalog in the Pamrapo Apartment. 297 After defendants' four-month jury trial ended on November 12, 1997, Yousef and Ismoil were convicted on all counts. On January 8, 1998 and April 3, 1998, respectively, the District Court sentenced Yousef and Ismoil each to a total of 240 years of imprisonment, in addition to five years of supervised release and various restitution obligations, as well as special assessments.