By Emery P. Dalesio
Associated Press
RALEIGH, North Carolina — A migrant from Kosovo who is already serving prison time for a homegrown U.S. terror plot read Quranic verses to jurors and scolded federal court officials at the start of his new trial on charges that he plotted to have government witnesses beheaded.
Hysen Sherifi read religious verses in Arabic and lectured jurors Monday on their meaning in English. He offered little to counter the government’s case against him. The 28-year-old Sherifi is acting as his own attorney.
Authorities say Sherifi tried to hire a hit man, then recruited his brother and a 47-year-old former special education teacher to behead government witnesses in his 2011 terror trial.
Sherifi was sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for plotting to attack the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, and overseas targets.