Teen made up story about anti-Muslim attack on subway By Tina Moore and Shawn Cohen
http://nypost.com/2016/12/14/teen-made-up-story-about-anti-muslim-attack-on-subway/
The Muslim teen who claimed three drunks taunted her as a “terrorist” on a Manhattan subway train now admits she lied to cops — and was arrested on Wednesday.
Yasmin Seweid, 18, is charged with obstructing governmental administration and filing a false report, according to a high-ranking police source.
Both charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail.
Seweid, who lives in Nassau County, had claimed the hateful drunks shouted, “Trump! Trump!” and called her a “terrorist” as they tried to steal her headscarf. “Go back to your country!” she said they shouted during the supposed Dec. 1 attack.
But when cops tried to confirm her story by checking surveillance video, they determined that her story didn’t add ups
Hate-crimes investigators called the Baruch College business major in on Wednesday to work on another sketch of her “attackers,” and confronted her with the inconsistencies, another source said.
That’s when she cracked, admitting she had been out late drinking with friends and made up the attack story to distract her angry father, sources said.
Seweid had been having problems with her strict-Muslim Egyptian family in North New Hyde Park because she is becoming “westernized,” one source said. Those problems were aggravated when they learned she was dating a Catholic, the source said.
Seweid was released without bail early Thursday morning after her arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
She left with her father and escorted by court officers.
A young man threw a dark jacket over her head — with her once-long hair shorn by a buzz cut — and then helped her into a black SUV before they drove off.
Neither Seweid nor her Legal Aid attorney, Benjamin J. West, would comment, and she did not speak inside the courtroom either.
Seweid’s claims of a bias attack had sparked a weeklong NYPD manhunt for the supposed attackers.
She had also publicly complained that no one on the crowded train came to her aid, prompting public debate on the rise in hate crimes as well as commuters’ lack of concern.
Seweid was the subject of a manhunt last week, when she ran away to her sister’s home in Fishkill, leaving the rest of her family and cops desperate to find her.
She was tracked down by Nassau cops, who found her because either she or the sister were posting on Facebook, sources said.
Her brother, Abdoul, and four others were charged with grand larceny in 2012,for allegedly breaking into parked cars and stealing electronics in Nassau.
Additional reporting by Laura Italiano and Dean Balsamini
Comments are closed.
