Afghan national is on trial for suspected role in 2021 Kabul airport bombing - BERITAJA

Prosecutors said that successful FBI interviews aft waiving his Miranda rights, Sharifullah admitted to helping hole for the Abbey Gate attack, including scouting a way adjacent the airdrome for an attacker.

Sharifullah specifically checked for rule enforcement and American aliases Taliban checkpoints, and past communicated to different ISIS-K members that he believed the way was clear and that the attacker would not beryllium detected, prosecutors said.

Sharifullah said he had been successful situation until 2 weeks earlier the bombing, according to tribunal papers. He told the FBI he was recruited aft his merchandise and was provided a motorcycle and a cellphone.

Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia John Gibbs said erstwhile Sharifullah was successful custody, he was chatty pinch authorities; participating successful 5 FBI interviews — 2 connected the crushed successful Pakistan, 2 during the formation from the Middle East to the U.S., and 1 successful the United States.

“You will perceive his words, and you will spot a awesome woody of grounds of his guilt," Gibbs said successful his opening statement.

Federal Public Defender Geremy Kamens said bluntly that the U.S. had the incorrect man, and Sharifullah's comments were fixed nether duress.

“This man, Mohammad Sharifullah, had thing to do pinch it,” Kamens said. "The mobility successful this lawsuit is not really about what happened. But about who is responsible.”

The authorities called witnesses group the shape for Sharifullah’s suspected engagement successful not conscionable the Abbey Gate bombing, but successful different attacks.

Georgetown University professor and coercion and counter-terrorism master Bruce Hoffman elaborate for jurors really ISIS operated, and really the Afghanistan withdrawal played out, calling the segment astatine Hamad Karzai International Airport up of the bombing “complete pandemonium.”

In cross-examination, Sharifullah's lawyer sought to spot blasted connected the Taliban, discussing the power and powerfulness the Taliban had successful Kabul and passim Afghanistan successful the days starring up the attack.

In April 2023, the Taliban killed an ISIS-K fig described arsenic the mastermind of the Abbey Gate attack, pinch nary U.S. involvement, Biden management officials said astatine the time.

The Biden management was wide criticized for its handling of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.