Uzbek man sentenced in Obama assassination plan

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- An Uzbek man who came to America pursuing an Ivy League medical degree but wound up working at a mall kiosk in Alabama was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison Friday for plotting to kill President Barack Obama.

Written and oral court pleadings showed Ulugbek Kodirov, 22, whose parents worked for his native Uzbek government, was accepted but never enrolled at Columbia University because his English was too poor.

He later moved to Alabama for a job and worked at a large mall near Birmingham, where defense attorney Lance Bell said Kodirov, who has the equivalent of a nursing degree, used his laptop and free Wi-Fi service to connect with extremists, initially for companionship, but who then turned him against the United States.

After communicating with these fellow Uzbek Muslim men, he "came to the belief that Americans were killing his people in cold blood," a sentencing memorandum said. "Ulugbek then developed an anti-American attitude." Kodirov's beliefs changed after his arrest when he learned stories he had been told were lies, Bell argued.

Kodirov pleaded guilty in February.-- AP