[JURIST] A Pakistani man on Tuesday was sentenced to 40 years in prison for planning to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, as well as other plans to attack New York City and Copenhagen. Abid Naseer, a 29-year-old extremist who denied any affiliation with al Qaeda [BBC backgrounder] during his trial, was convicted by a federal jury in March on charges including that he provided material support to the Islamic militant group. At his sentencing [Reuters report], in which he faced a maximum of life in prison, he sought leniency from US District Judge Raymond Dearie, stating that he was not a career criminal. The planned attack in Manchester was to be carried out [BBC report] in the Arndale shopping center. The attack was part of a larger overall al Qaeda plan to bomb the New York City subway system as well as a Copenhagen newspaper. Two other men that were part of the planning, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay, have pleaded guilty to US charges stemming from the New York subway plot. A third man, Adis Medunjanin, was sentenced in 2012 to life in prison.

In 2009 Naseer was arrested in the UK in response to a US request that he stand trial for his alleged attempts to plant bombs in New York, Norway and the UK. In July 2010 Naseer was one of five men indicted on terrorism charges [JURIST report] for his alleged involvement in the New York City subway bomb plot that was to be carried out [JURIST report] in September 2009. Specifically, the men were charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and commit murder in the US, and providing material support to and receiving training from al Qaeda in connection with a plot to detonate explosives in the New York City subway system. In January 2011 a British court approved [JURIST report] the extradition of Naseer to the US, where he would stand trial. Naseer’s lawyers had fought his extradition to the US citing concerns that the US may attempt to deport him to his native country of Pakistan.