Eyad Ismoil | |
---|---|
Born | circa 1971 (age 45–46) Jordan |
Occupation | Engineering student |
Criminal penalty | Life in prison |
Criminal status | Incarcerated at ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado |
Conviction(s) | Conspiracy |
Eyad Ismoil (Arabic: اياد اسماعيل), also transliterated as Eyad Ismail, (born circa 1971) is a Jordanian citizen who, for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was convicted by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York of conspiracy in 1997.
Born in Jordan, Ismoil attended high school in Jordan. He entered the United States in 1989 on a student visa to study engineering at Wichita State University, where he enrolled at the Intensive English Language Center to study English as a second language. Ismoil overstayed his visa and moved to Dallas, Texas. In December 1992, he was contacted by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, with whom he re-located to New York City on February 22, 1993 to begin preparing for the attack.
On February 26, 1993, Ismoil, accompanied by Yousef, drove a van packed with explosives into the parking garage below the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York. The van exploded at 12:18 p.m., killing six people, causing numerous injuries, and inflicting an estimated five hundred million dollars worth of damage to the WTC. Ismoil fled the United States that night, as did Yousef, on a separate flight.
In August 1995, Ismoil was captured by Jordanian authorities in Amman and extradited to the United States to stand trial in New York for his role in the bombing.