This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
An Uzbek refugee with Utah connections has been charged with stabbing the warden of a federal prison in California while he served a 25-year sentence.
Fazliddin Kurbanov, 34, was indicted on three counts last week by a California grand jury: attempted murder of a federal officer, assault on a federal officer with a deadly weapon and possession of an object intended to be a weapon.
Calvin Johnson, the warden at the federal prison in Victorville, Calif., was seriously injured in the May 2016 incident and has recovered. According to charges, Kurbanov used a homemade knife, known as a "shiv," to attack Johnson.
Kurbanov, who is from Boise, Idaho, was sentenced last year in U.S. District Court in Boise for a conspiracy to provide support to a terrorist organization and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
Prosecutors said he was in touch with operators of a website for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, designated as a foreign terrorist organization. During the conversations, he discussed his desire to kill military members or civilians. He was monitored by authorities and arrested in 2013.
A federal grand jury in Utah also indicted Kurbanov in 2013, on charges that said he showed internet videos, provided recipes and carried out instructional shopping trips here to demonstrate how to build improvised explosive devices to be used in bombing public places. The charges were dismissed last year after Kurbanov agreed to drop an appeal in the Idaho case.
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