Accused New York, New Jersey bomber to be
tried in New York: judge
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[May 09, 2017]
By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Afghan-born man
charged with setting off bombs in New York and New Jersey will be tried
in New York after a federal judge rejected his lawyers' argument that he
could not get a fair trial in the city where he is accused of injuring
30 people.
At a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Monday, U.S. District Judge
Richard Berman denied a motion to move the case against Ahmad Rahimi to
another federal court, saying an impartial jury could be assembled in
"one of the largest and most diverse districts in the country."
Lawyers for Rahimi, a U.S. citizen, had proposed Vermont and Washington,
D.C. as possible alternative venues.
Rahimi, 29, is facing federal and state charges in New York and New
Jersey after authorities said he detonated bombs in the Chelsea
neighborhood of Manhattan and in the coastal New Jersey town of Seaside
Heights last September.
The bomb in New York injured 30 people but the explosion in New Jersey
hurt no one.
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According to prosecutors, Rahimi also left behind unexploded bombs in
New York and in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before he was captured in Linden,
New Jersey, following a shootout with police in which two officers
suffered minor injuries.
In their motion to transfer the case, Rahimi's lawyers argued that media
coverage of the case would make it impossible to assemble an impartial
jury. But Berman said Monday that robust questioning of potential jurors
would be enough to ensure fairness.
Berman also noted that other high-profile cases had been tried in the
Manhattan court before, including those of Mohammed Salameh and Ramzi
Yousef, convicted of helping plan the 1993 bombing of the World Trade
Center.
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![](../images/050917pics/news_d9.jpg)
Ahmad Rahimi, 28, is shown in Union County, New Jersey, U.S.
Prosecutor's Office photo released on September 19, 2016. Courtesy
Union County Prosecutor's Office/Handout via REUTERS
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Sabrina Shroff, a lawyer for Rahimi, said after the hearing the
motion could be renewed once questioning of potential jurors begins.
A judge in New Jersey state court, where Rahimi faces separate
charges, has also refused to move the case.
Motions like Rahimi's are rarely granted, even in high-profile
cases. For example, federal judges refused to move the trial of the
Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, despite massive pretrial
media coverage.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
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