Four men convicted in plot to bomb Bronx synagogues

Four men accused of planting bombs outside synagogues in the Bronx and plotting to fire missiles at military planes were convicted on Monday, in a case that was widely seen as an important test of the entrapment defense.

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Jewish Journal

October 18, 2010

Four men caught in an FBI sting operation were convicted of plotting to blow up synagogues in New York City.

The men, arrested in May 2009, were convicted Monday by a jury in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan of planting bombs at the Riverdale Jewish Center and the Riverdale Temple, both in the Bronx, and of planning to shoot down U.S. military aircraft using surface-to-air missiles.

The bombs and missiles provided by an FBI informant were disabled.

Three of the men, who all converted to Islam while serving jail time for other crimes, are U.S. citizens; the fourth is Haitian.

Defense attorneys claimed during the eight-week trial that the men were entrapped by the offers of money and were not predisposed to terrorist activity.

The men could be sentenced to life in prison.