DETROIT (AP) — A Montreal man convicted of stabbing a police officer at a Flint, Michigan, airport was in debt and noticed the assault as a option to change into a martyr whereas benefiting his spouse and kids financially via a life insurance coverage coverage, his attorneys wrote in a Thursday court docket submitting.
Amor Ftouhi's attorneys say he ought to get 25 years in jail and that he ought to serve that point in solitary confinement.
Nonetheless, federal prosecutors say Ftouhi must be sentenced to life in jail for committing an act of terrorism transcending nationwide boundaries and for interfering with airport safety. They are saying he was on a mission to kill as many individuals as doable after which be killed himself.
Ftouhi was convicted in November on a number of expenses within the June 2017 assault. Witnesses stated Ftouhi, who's Muslim, yelled "Allahu akbar" — or "God is nice" — whereas attacking Lt. Jeff Neville, who survived being stabbed within the neck.
Protection attorneys wrote that Ftouhi was depressed about being in debt and being unable to correctly help his spouse and kids after he had moved them from Tunisia to Montreal. He additionally anticipated that different officers would have killed him and that his widow may have collected on his life insurance coverage coverage, they wrote.
"Mr. Ftouhi believed he had discovered a 'resolution' to his monetary and emotional predicament: change into a martyr for Allah and earn a spot in Paradise for him and his household as his reward," they wrote within the memorandum. "Mr. Ftouhi really believed this was the inventive reply to all of his issues each within the current and within the afterlife."
The submitting didn't listing any of Ftouhi's money owed and the attorneys declined to remark when reached by telephone.
In his submitting, U.S. Lawyer Matthew Schneider dismissed the protection attorneys' characterization of Ftouhi's assault as a one-time occasion and a product of his despair and hopelessness.
"Ftouhi could have been unhappy along with his life however he tried to kill Jeff Neville and meant to kill numerous extra as a result of he dreamed of being a mujahedeen — a warrior," Schneider asserted. "He yearned to be revered and killing was the way in which to attain that. Life imprisonment is the one simply sentence for this crime and the one manner to make sure the general public's security sooner or later. The court docket ought to impose that sentence."
Investigators have stated Ftouhi meant to stab Neville, take his gun and begin capturing individuals at Flint Bishop Airport. He legally drove into the U.S. at Champlain, New York, and arrived in Flint 5 days later. He tried however failed to purchase a gun at a gun present and as an alternative purchased a big knife.
"His plan was by no means to change into an indiscriminate killer, making an attempt to create a mass casualty state of affairs, nor was he making an attempt to be a member of any radical Islamic group," his attorneys wrote. "Mr. Ftouhi most definitely believed he would have been killed on June 21, 2017, and when he wasn't killed, he was very upset."
Ftouhi's attorneys did not supply a gap assertion at trial and did not name any witnesses. In her closing argument, legal professional Joan Morgan stated Ftouhi was unstable and believed it could be simpler to be killed by police within the U.S. than in Canada.
"Mr. Ftouhi believed he wanted to be killed as a 'soldier of Allah' by a uniformed enemy of Muslims with a view to clear up his issues of debt, to enter Paradise, and to finish his life," his attorneys wrote within the memorandum. "He didn't consider Allah would settle for that an armed Canadian officer was an enemy of Muslims, however he believed an armed United States authorities official could be acceptable to Allah, given his perceived view of U.S. involvement within the Center East."
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