What the heck?
Here (below) is the AP story on the latest on the legal situation facing Uzbek Muslim Fazliddin Kurbanov. The story starts with the provocative phrase “for security reasons” but never tells us what the security threat is!
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — For security reasons, an Uzbek national charged in Idaho with terrorism-related crimes won’t be in court early next week when his lawyers discuss progress of the case with prosecutors and a judge.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge said Fazliddin Kurbanov can skip attendance at Tuesday afternoon’s hearing.
Kurbanov, a refugee living in Boise who has pleaded not guilty to all charges including helping teach people to build bombs, faces a trial set to start July 1, 2014.
The 30-year-old Kurbanov arrived in the United States in 2009, a refugee from violence in his home country.
Since then, he’s been living in Idaho’s capital and working as, among other things, a truck driver.
But prosecutors say he also was working secretly to facilitate attacks, including on public transportation systems.
So what is the security concern? Other Uzbeks would show-up and blow away the courtroom? Shoot Kurbanov so he can’t talk? What? Back in June we learned his public defenders wanted out of the case citing budget constraints, or were they afraid of something?
See our previous coverage of this case as well as all of our ‘Uzbeks refugee’ posts here.
We are still bringing Uzbeks to the US—51 so far this year, click here.
And, I wonder if Jan Reeves, Idaho refugee director, pictured with Holly Johnson, here in my previous post, knows Kurbanov?