April 19 (UPI) -- A Canadian citizen was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a police officer in the neck at a Michigan airport in 2017.
Amor Ftouhi, 51, was charged with an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, violence at an international airport and interference with airport security and was convicted by a federal jury in 2018, CNN reported.
In 2017, Ftouhi stabbed airport security Lt. Jeff Neville twice in the neck with a knife while yelling that God is great in Arabic with the plan to steal Neville's gun to kill people at Flint, Michigan's Bishop International Airport.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in his sentencing memo that Ftouhi had planned the attack at least months before it took place while living in Montreal, Canada, where he emigrated to from Tunisia in 2007.
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Ftouhi had entered the United States from Canada legally through New York on June 16, 2017, before entering Michigan two days later.
During sentencing Thursday in federal court, Federal Judge Matthew Leitman handed down the life sentence after Ftouhi said he did not regret his crimes and that he'd do them again, WXYZ Detroit reported.
Ftouhi told the judge that he regretted not having a machine gun that day so he could have killed a lot of people including officer Neville, WSMH reported.
He also told Leitman that he still had jihad in his heart.
Leitman said Ftouhi wasn't helping his case.
Ftouhi said he didn't care.
Following the sentencing, Neville, who had since left the force and suffers from PTSD from the attack, said, "I would have been disappointed if he didn't get life because he's really a dangerous man, because I think if he got out of prison at 70-years-old he'd still be a dangerous man."
Defense Attorney Joan Morgan argued for a 25-year sentence, calming his client had mental issues.
Ftouhi planned to appeal his case.
