Illegal immigrant from Uzbekistan pleads not guilty to threatening life of President Obama
Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011, 10:14 AM
Updated: Thursday, August 11, 2011, 12:02 PM
By Kent Faulk -- The Birmingham News

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama --- A man from the Uzbekistan, in the U.S. illegally and living in Pelham, pleaded not guilty this morning to threatening the life of President Barack Obama and possession of weapons, including an automatic machine gun and grenades.

Ulugbek Kodirov, 21, entered the plea through his attorney Lance Bell during a brief arraignment hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Harwell Davis at the L. Black U.S. Courthouse in Birmingham.

Kodirov did not speak during the hearing that lasted less than a minute.


The Uzbekistan native was indicted by a federal grand jury for threatening the life of the president and illegally possessing weapons.

Kodirov was charged with four counts of threatening the president --- on July 9, July 10, July 11 and July 13. He also was charged with being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and unlawfully possessing a fully automatic weapon. Both of those weapons counts refer to a Sendra Corporation Model M15-A1 rifle which he bought from undercover law enforcement agents before his arrest on July 13, according to court documents.

The indictment, filed in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, also charges Kodirov with receiving and possessing an unregistered grenade on July 13. He had four grenades, but the gunpowder was not in them, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Among items federal authorities were looking for in a July 13 search of Kodirov's room at the Oak Mountain Lodge in Pelham were Jihadist manuals and training materials, sniper rifles and other long range weaponry, documentation related to assassination and the names and identifiers of possible co-conspirators, according to the federal search warrant. The warrant did not list what may have been found during the search.

After the hearing, Bell said that he was waiting for the federal government to declassify evidence in the case so he can review it.

But Bell said he wanted to point out that government agents are the ones who provided Kodirov with the automatic weapon and grenades before Kodirov's arrest. "It's (the weapons) not something he brought to the table," he said.

Kodirov had at one time worked at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, Bell said.

Updated at noon with clarifying that Kodirov once worked at the Galleria.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/08/ill ... raine.html