NEW YORK (AP) – A terrorism suspect who’s defending himself against allegations he was a would-be bomber took on an unusual task Wednesday at his trial: cross-examining a convicted terrorist who prosecutors say was part of the same al-Qaida conspiracy.
For about an hour, Abid Naseer calmly peppered Najibulla Zazi with questions intended to distance himself from Zazi, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to plotting a failed suicide attack on New York City subways.
“Mr. Zazi, do you know the defendant who is asking these questions?” Naseer asked, referring to himself in the third person.
“I don’t remember your face,” Zazi responded.
The spectacle in federal court in Brooklyn came in a case in which the 28-year-old Pakistani chose to act as his own attorney. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted with others to bomb a shopping mall in Manchester, England – part of a broader al-Qaida conspiracy calling on other cells to attack civilians in New York and Denmark.