Accused New York bomber indicted on new federal charges

[November 17, 2016]  By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man accused of injuring more than two dozen people in September bomb attacks in New York and New Jersey was indicted on Wednesday, as federal prosecutors in Manhattan added new charges that could result in a mandatory life prison sentence.

Ahmad Khan Rahimi, 28, was charged in an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court with eight counts, including using a weapon of mass destruction in an explosion in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood that injured 30 people.

The Sept. 17 attack came hours after prosecutors contend a pipe bomb planted by Rahimi went off along the course of a charity road race by the New Jersey shore, without injuring anyone.

While the indictment included no new factual allegations, it included two counts accusing Rahimi of using a destructive device during and in furtherance of a crime, charges that carry with them potential mandatory life prison terms.

"Now indicted by a grand jury, Rahimi will face justice in a federal court for his alleged violent acts of terrorism," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.

Rahimi, an Afghan-born naturalized U.S. citizen, is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment on Thursday afternoon. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A NJ Union county Sheriff stands guard as he listens to the hearing of Ahmad Khan Rahimi in a court room in Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S., October 13, 2016. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

Rahimi, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, was arrested two days after the bombing following a gunfight with police, who found him sleeping in the doorway of a bar in Linden, New Jersey.

In addition to the bombs that went off, prosecutors accuse Rahimi of planting another pressure-cooker bomb in Chelsea that did not go off and leaving several devices at a train station in Elizabeth in New Jersey.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney, Bernard Orr)

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