By Maria Tsvetkova and Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) – Two men accused of igniting homemade bombs at a chaotic anti-Islam protest outside the New York City mayor’s mansion told police they were inspired by Islamic State, the Islamist militant group, and were charged on Monday with federal terrorism-related crimes, according to court records.
Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, are accused of traveling from Pennsylvania with dangerous improvised explosive devices to Manhattan on Saturday, where a small group of far-right Christian activists had planned the anti-Muslim rally outside Gracie Mansion against Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor.
Balat was captured in photographs and video lighting a small IED and throwing it toward the anti-Muslim protesters before lighting a second device handed to him by Kayumi and dropping it, according to the criminal complaint. Police were able to intercept the smoking devices, duct-taped jars containing screws and bolts and the explosive substance TATP, and no one was hurt.
After police arrested them, they said they were inspired by Islamic State, and Balat told police that he wanted to carry out an attack “even bigger” than the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 that killed three people, according to the criminal complaint filed in the U.S. district court in Manhattan on Monday.
Defense attorney Mehdi Essmidi, who represents Balat, said he is a U.S.-born high school senior of Turkish descent, who turned 18 two months ago.
“We are actively trying to determine how this came to be and how he came to be in this situation,” Essmidi told Reuters.
Speaking alongside police outside Gracie Mansion on Monday, Mamdani condemned the violence and told reporters he would defend the right of protesters “even when those protesting say things that I abhor.”
He and his wife were not home at the time, because they had known about the “Stop the Muslim takeover” rally organized by far-right activist Jake Lang more than a week in advance. More than 100 counter-protesters gathered nearby, the vast majority peaceful, saying they were there to “run Nazis out” of New York.
“While I found this protest appalling, I will not waver in my belief that it should be allowed to happen,” Mamdani said of the anti-Muslim rally. “Let me also be clear about something else. New York City will never tolerate violence, whether from protests or counter-protests.”
Lang, who has announced a long-shot bid to represent Florida in the U.S. Senate, told reporters on Saturday he organized the rally because “New York was built by white Christian men” like him, and was “being destroyed by Muslims and socialists.”
He brought a goat on a leash to the rally and, with other protesters, dragged around a roasted pig on a trolley around Manhattan’s streets, intended as anti-Muslim provocations.
COURT APPEARANCES
Police said it was the first time an improvised bomb was used in New York City in nearly a decade. In 2017, Akayed Ullah, who also cited Islamic State as inspiration, ignited a homemade bomb strapped to his body in a passage near the Times Square subway station, wounding only himself.
Balat and Kayumi are each charged with five federal crimes, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, including use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and three charges related to the illegal possession or transportation of explosives.
Both men remained in federal custody after their initial court appearances on Monday afternoon at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, local media reported. Kayumi’s lawyer Michael Arthus declined to comment. Neither had a criminal record, police said.
During their separate police interviews, Balat asked for a piece of paper and wrote on it he had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, while Kayumi told police he watched Islamic State videos on his phone, according to the criminal complaint.
Essmidi, Balat’s lawyer, said he had seen him in custody but declined to tell whether Balat explained his comments about ISIS. The defense asked for protective custody for him out of concerns for his safety, the lawyer said.
A third man, Ian McGinnis, was arrested and appeared in a New York state court on Sunday accused of squirting pepper spray or a similar chemical irritant into the faces of two of the counter-protesters opposing the anti-Islam rally, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office and police. McGinnis faces six charges, including third-degree assault.
Police in New York have been on alert since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, but said they had not seen evidence linking Saturday’s attack to the war.
(Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen; editing by Donna Bryson, Rosalba O’Brien and David Gregorio)
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