Alexei Saab faces dozens of years in prison if convicted on all counts. (Representative Photo)
A New Jersey software developer, Alexei Saab, lived a double life as a “sleeper agent” for Islamic militant group Hezbollah, and scouted terror targets in New York City, federal prosecutors said on Monday during the start of his trial. According to New York Post, Mr Saab, a US citizen since 2008, was arrested by the feds in 2019 and charged with several counts, including terrorism, for allegedly providing materials to the terrorist group.
On Monday, Mr Saab faced trial in one of the many New York City buildings he has been accused of plotting to bomb. As per the Post, the former sleeper agent for Hezbollah allegedly moved to the United States in 2000 from Lebanon with a secret mission to apply for citizenship and plan a future attack on behalf of the militant group designated a foreign terrorist organisation.
In his opening statement, Assistant US Attorney Sam Adelsberg noted that the 45-year-old kept up appearances as a “normal” law-abiding US citizen, while also gathering intelligence on a number of tunnels and bridges. “He posed as a regular guy,” Mr Adelsberg said, adding, “In reality, he was a sleeper agent for Hezbollah ready to strike.”
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According to New York Daily News, the attorney further went on to say that Mr Saab, instead of doing his day job, surveyed the lower Manhattan courthouse, the FBI offices at 26 Federal Plaza, the Empire State Building and Kennedy Airport. The 45-year-old's ultimate goal, according to the report, was to scope out targets so the Islamic network “could kill Americans if Americans threatened Iran, Hezbollah's main ally”.
The prosecutor said that Mr Saab also surveyed building in Boston, Washington DC, and other cities abroad. He even tried to murder an Israeli spy in the 1990s, Daily News reported. As per the Mr Adelsberg's statement, Mr Saab even allegedly gathered ‘“details like, how buildings were constructed. How close one could get to a building to plant a bomb as part of an attack. And whether these buildings or landmarks had weaknesses or soft spots Hezbollah could exploit”.
“This was information that Hezbollah would use to calculate the size of a bomb needed to attack a particular target - information for determining the ideal location to place that bomb to maximize death and destruction,” the prosecutor claimed.
Meanwhile, Mr Saab's lawyer Marlon Kirton, according to the Daily News report, said that his client had long cut ties with the Islamic militant group. Mr Kirton stated that his client had ceased all Hezbollah-related activity and communication in 2005. The defence attorney went on to argue that Hezbollah has never attacked US citizens in America and that Mr Saab was recruited into the group amid regional conflict between Lebanon and Israel.
Alexei Saab is charged with providing support to a terrorist group, citizenship fraud, receiving military training from a terrorist group, fraudulent marriage, and other charges. He faces dozens of years in prison if convicted on all counts.