NEW YORK CITY — The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Akayed Ullah's conviction for providing material support to the Islamic State group while upholding his life sentence for the planned 2017 subway bombing attack beneath Times Square. The court left intact other charges against Ullah that support his life sentence, which was imposed in April 2021.

The appeals court said a conviction for providing material support requires that the defendant work under the terrorist group's control. Because Ullah acted alone and ISIS did not know of him, the charge could not stand, the court found. The court wrote in its opinion: "If he is acting alone, and if ISIS does not know he exists, has no expectation he will hear ISIS's messages or act on them, and will not know, or care, or have any recourse if he ignores the message completely."

In a dissent, Judge Steven J. Menashi disputed the majority's reasoning. "To reach the opposite conclusion, the majority rewrites the material-support statute and ignores the evidence presented to the jury," Menashi wrote.

Judge Richard J. Sullivan addressed the underlying attack in the ruling. "It was a truly barbaric and heinous crime," Sullivan wrote.

The attack targeted the area beneath Times Square and the Port Authority bus terminal. The bombing attempt left Ullah seriously burned, and one bystander lost 70 percent of his hearing. Ullah was sentenced to life in prison in April 2021 on the charges that the appeals court left intact.

Hours after the bombing attempt, President Donald Trump criticized the U.S. immigration system for allowing Ullah and other Bangladeshis to enter the country.