WASHINGTON, DC — An Arizona man has been found guilty of crimes related to his plot to target Christian churches in several states, including Colorado.
A federal jury found Zimnako Salah, 45, of Phoenix, Arizona, guilty of the charges against him following an 11-day trial. He had been accused of strapping a backpack around a toilet in 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 U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release Friday.
The offense was considered a hate crime because Salah had targeted the church due to the religion of the people who worshipped there.
At the trial, evidence showed that between September and November 2023, Salah traveled to four churches with black backpacks. He planted the backpacks at two of them, causing fear that they held bombs, and was confronted by security at the other two churches. The four churches are in Arizona, California and Colorado.
According to a criminal complaint, Salah rented a storage unit about 15 minutes away from the Colorado church, stayed overnight in the unit and "stored component parts for a destructive device or a hoax device, such as a propane canister with wires taped to it, and strips of duct tape lined with nails." In addition, an antisemitic statement was scrawled on the wall of the storage unit in Kurdish, the complaint reads. The church was not identified, but is located in Greenwood Village, the complaint reads.
#ALERT Law enforcement authorities have identified Zimnako Salah Salah, 44, a Middle-Eastern man, as a person of interest who walked into a church near S. Dayton St. and E. Belleview Ave. on Sunday, November 19 around 10:30 a.m. wearing a backpack. He was greeted by a uniformed… pic.twitter.com/e4E1pxZso7
— Arapahoe Sheriff (@ArapahoeSO) November 22, 2023
"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," the DOJ's press release reads. "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)."
Salah’s social media showed he consumed extremist propaganda online, the DOJ said, and had searched for videos of “Infidels dying" and watched videos depicting ISIS terrorists committing murder.
Salah faces a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $250K fine. His sentencing is scheduled for July 18.
The FBI investigated this case along with multiple other agencies, including the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office in Colorado.
“This Department of Justice has no tolerance for anyone who targets religious Americans for their faith,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “The perpetrator of this abhorrent hate crime against Christians will face severe punishment.”
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