A U.S. federal court has sentenced Kenyan national Cholo Abdi Abdullah to life in prison after prosecutors proved he trained to hijack a plane and carry out a 9/11-style terror attack. The case was heard in New York, where the judge ruled that Abdullah posed a serious threat to American civilians and could never be allowed the chance to act on his plans.

Evidence showed that Abdullah began working with the extremist group al-Shabaab in 2015. During his time in Somalia, he moved between safe houses and went through military-style training. This training included learning how to use weapons and make explosives, preparing him for what the group called a larger international mission.

Later, Abdullah was chosen to help carry out an aviation plot. From 2017 to 2019, he attended a flight school in the Philippines, where he worked toward earning a commercial pilot’s license. Investigators discovered that al-Shabaab helped pay for his school fees and living costs through its financing network.

By the time he was arrested in July 2019, Abdullah had almost finished his pilot training. After his arrest, he told FBI agents that he planned to hijack a plane and crash it into a building in the United States. Investigators also learned that he researched airline security, visa rules, and ways to sneak items onto aircraft. He admitted he expected people ( including himself ) to die in the attack.

U.S. officials said the plot was stopped thanks to cooperation between law enforcement agencies in several countries, including the United States, Kenya, and the Philippines. They also linked his radicalization to other al-Shabaab attacks, such as the 2019 DusitD2 attack in Nairobi, which inspired him to move forward with his own plans.

Abdullah was convicted on multiple terrorism-related charges, including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and aircraft piracy. Because his crimes carry the highest penalties allowed by law, he will spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of supervised release.