Iraqi man Convicted of Crimes Arising Out of Plot Targeting Christian Churches

Iraqi man Convicted of Crimes Arising Out of Plot Targeting Christian Churches
News release

After an 11-day trial, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict yesterday against Zimnako Salah, 45, of Phoenix, Arizona, convicting him of strapping a backpack around the toilet of a Christian church in Roseville, California, with the intent to convey a hoax bomb threat and to obstruct the free exercise of religion of the congregants who worshipped there.  The jury’s verdict included a special finding Salah targeted the church because of the religion of the people who worshipped there, making the offense a hate crime.

While Salah had been making bomb threats by planting backpacks in Christian churches, he had been building a bomb capable of fitting in a backpack. During a search of his storage unit, an FBI Bomb Technician seized items that an FBI Bomb Expert testified at trial served as component parts of an improvised explosive device (IED).
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A search of Salah’s social media records revealed that he had consumed extremist propaganda online. Specifically, those records showed that Salah had searched for videos of “Infidels dying,” and he had watched videos depicting ISIS terrorists murdering people.