Shahawar Matin Siraj is a Pakistani-American who was convicted in 2006 of plotting to bomb a New York City Subway station in Manhattan. Siraj was arrested in 2004 and found guilty of terrorism conspiracy. Siraj worked at an Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Over a period of several months in 2004 he was recorded by an FBI informer Osama Eldawoody regarding a plot to plant a bomb in the 34th Street–Herald Square station. According to the New York City Police Department, Siraj was "extremely impressionable due to severe intellectual limitations" and never actually agreed to carry out an attack. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2007. In April 2021, the New York Times published an extensive investigative journalism report making the case that Siraj was the victim of an entrapment scheme orchestrated by the FBI. Biography Siraj, an immigrant from Pakistan who was not especially religious, worked in his uncle's Islamic bookstore in Bay Ridge and his uncle encouraged him to attend services at the nearby Islamic Society of Bay Ridge. He became more interested in Islam and also became irate about rumoured abuses of Muslim girls by American soldiers and about documented abuses of Muslims by American troops at the Abu Ghraib prison. His family had overstayed their visas and were attempting to gain political asylum so that they could remain in the United States. Investigation According to New York City Police Department (NYPD) records, Siraj was "extremely impressionable due to severe intellectual limitations". When asked to participate in an attack on New York City Subway station by an informant, Siraj replied that he had to ask his mother for permission first. The NYPD admitted that Siraj never actually agreed to participate in an attack. Siraj also had no explosives or understanding of explosives. U.S. v. Shahawar Matin Siraj The trial received significant attention from local media outlets. The four-week trial was conducted in Brooklyn's Federal court. Defense The defense alleged that Siraj was "entrapped" into plotting the crime, after incitement of hatred by the police informant. Using his hatred of America, they claimed, he was convinced to commit a crime against American civilians, which he would not normally have been inclined to do. Many jurors said in anonymous interviews after the case that the "entrapment defense" was the most convincing in their hesitation to convict him. They attacked the credibility of the prosecution's