Sayfullo Saipov, the Islamic extremist who drove a rented truck into pedestrians and cyclists on a New York City bike path in 2017, was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences on Wednesday after he spoke for nearly an hour to defend his actions, CNN reported.
Saipov was sentenced to life in prison for each of the eight victims as well as a consecutive term of 260 years and two additional concurrent life sentences, federal district Judge Vernon Broderick imposed in court.
Prior to the sentence, Saipov spoke in Uzbek via a translator for nearly an hour about the history of Islam and offered a justification of his crimes, showing no indication of remorse, according to CNN.
The judge addressed Saipov before imposing his sentence.
“The conduct in this case is among the worst if not the worst I have ever seen both in terms of the impact of that on the victims and on the sheer unrepentant nature of the defendant,” Broderick said. “You did not and you do not care about their pain and their suffering that is the direct result of your callous and cowardly actions.”
Saipov was found guilty in January of all 28 counts against him. Those counts included murder in aid of racketeering activity, assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, provision of material support to ISIS, and violence and destruction of a motor vehicle.
Saipov effectively learned his sentence in March, when the jury in the penalty phase of his trial in Manhattan federal court told a judge it was unable to reach a unanimous decision favoring the death penalty on any of the nine capital counts against him.
He was charged after the attack with federal terrorism offenses, including providing material support to ISIS and violence and destruction of motor vehicles. He had pleaded not guilty.