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SALT LAKE CITY — A man with Utah ties who is behind bars for supporting an Islamic terrorist group was sentenced Monday to another 20 years for trying to kill a federal prison warden in California.
Fazliddin Kurbanov, 36, pleaded guilty in March to making and using a prison-made knife to attack the warden in Victorville two years ago and attempting to slit his throat. The warden suffered serious injuries but recovered and now works at another federal facility.
At a hearing Monday, Kurbanov, speaking through an interpreter, told the court he was not sorry for his actions and that the victim was supposed to die. Kurbanov also expressed extreme animosity toward the United States, according to the Justice Department.
Kurbanov, an Uzbek national who lived in Boise, is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and possessing an unregistered destructive device. The judge ordered the 20-year term to run consecutively with his current sentence and placed him on lifetime probation after his release.
Federal authorities said in 2013 that Kurbanov supplied money, software and training to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which the U.S. government identifies as a foreign terrorist group that aimed to overthrow the Uzbek regime and establish an Islamic state.
In Utah, he showed internet videos, led shopping trips, provided written recipes and gave instructions on where to obtain components to build and use improvised explosive devices, according to federal officials.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah in 2013 charged Kurbanov with distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the case after he dropped the appeal of his conviction in Idaho.
