A man who killed eight people with a speeding pick-up truck in a 2017 rampage on a popular New York City bike path was convicted on Thursday of 28 federal crimes and could face the death penalty.
Sayfullo Saipov bowed his head as he heard the verdict in the trial for a Halloween attack that prosecutors said was inspired by his reverence for ISIS.
Saipov was tried in a Manhattan courtroom just a few blocks from where the attack ended.
The 12 jurors deliberated for about seven hours over two days before convicting Sapoiv of crimes including murder in aid of racketeering and supporting a foreign terrorist organisation.
The jury will return to court in days to hear more evidence to help them decide whether he should be executed or spend his life in prison.
A death sentence for Saipov, a citizen of Uzbekistan, would be an extreme rarity in New York. The state no longer has capital punishment and the last state execution was in 1963.
A federal jury in New York has not ordered a death sentence that withstood legal appeals in decades, with the last execution in 1954.
Even before the trial, there was little doubt Saipov was a killer.
His lawyers conceded to the jury that he rented a pickup truck near his New Jersey home, steered it on to the path along the Hudson River and mowed down cyclists for blocks before crashing into a school bus near the World Trade Centre.
He emerged from his lorry yelling "Allahu Akbar", with pellet and paintball guns in his hands before he was shot by a police officer who thought the guns were real.
The vehicle attack killed a woman visiting from Belgium with her family, five friends from Argentina and two Americans. It left others with permanent injuries, including a woman who lost her legs.
“His actions were senseless, horrific, and there’s no justification for them,” defence lawyer David Patton told the jury during the trial.
The defence asked jurors to acquit Saipov of racketeering charges, saying he intended to die a martyr and was not conspiring with ISIS, despite large amounts of propaganda from the group found on his devices and at his home.
Prosecutors said Saipov attacked civilians to impress ISIS so he could become a member and appeared pleased with his work, smiling when he spoke to an FBI agent afterwards.
Among those testifying were several family members from Belgium who were injured in the attack.
Aristide Melissas, a father, said he had challenged family members to race their bikes to the World Trade Centre, with the loser paying for ice cream.
Mr Melissas's skull was fractured and he underwent brain surgery.
Saipov’s lawyers have said the death sentence process was irrevocably tainted by former president Donald Trump, who tweeted a day after the attack that he “should get death penalty”.
US President Joe Biden instituted a moratorium on executions for federal crimes after taking office.
Until Saipov's trial, the Justice Department, under Attorney General Merrick Garland, had not launched any new attempt to obtain the death penalty in a federal case.
But Mr Garland has allowed US prosecutors to continue advocating for capital punishment in cases from previous administrations.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
