Judge orders release of Uzbek suspect on terror charges
By Keith Coffman
(Reuters) - A federal judge in Colorado on Friday ordered the release of a man who has been held for more than five years on charges of providing support to a suspected Islamic terror group in his native Uzbekistan.
U.S. District Judge John Kane granted the petition filed by Jamshid Muhtorov, who claims he should be given bail after repeated delays in the case violated his right to a speedy trial.
Kane, who said he “weighed heavily” his decision given the seriousness of the charges, did not order Muhtorov to be released immediately and scheduled a hearing for next week to set the conditions of his bond.
“There is a presumption of flight risk and dangerousness that attaches to Mr. Muhtorov because he is charged with conspiracy and attempt to provide material support to terrorism,” Kane wrote in his 11-page order.
Muhtorov, 40, is accused of trying to smuggle smart phones and other electronic equipment to the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based extremist group that opposes secular rule in Uzbekistan and seeks to install a government based on Islamic law.However, the judge noted that Muhtorov will have spent six years in custody by the time his trial gets under way early next year. He faces a maximum 15 years in prison if convicted.
No one died or was injured in the plot, which was thwarted.
“Six years of detention awaiting trial on these charges approaches the range of sentences imposed in other cases,” Kane wrote, calling the situation “unprecedented” in anything he has seen in his 40 years on the federal bench.
Citing a gag order Kane imposed at the outset of the case, a spokesman for acting U.S. Attorney Robert Troyer said prosecutors cannot comment on the ruling.
Muhtorov, who lived in suburban Denver, came to the United States as a legal Uzbek refugee. He was arrested in January 2012 at Chicago’s O’Hare airport as he was attempting to board an overseas flight, according to a FBI arrest warrant affidavit.
In Friday’s ruling, Kane said Muhtorov’s “professed desire to join a movement that justifies the murder and maiming of all who dare to think differently than he does on matters of faith and religion deeply offend our values of religious liberty, the sanctity of life, tolerance, justice, and the rule of law.”
Nevertheless, Muhtorev’s family ties and evidence suggesting his “bark was more serious than his bite” warranted the granting of a bond, he said.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Cynthia Osterman)
