RIVERSIDE, CALIF.
A convicted terrorist sentenced to a quarter century in prison for providing support to an Uzbekistan terrorist organization was charged with trying to kill a federal prison warden with a shank, officials announced Thursday.
Fazliddin Kurbanov, 34, has been indicted on attempted murder charges. for allegedly trying to kill the warden of the federal prison where he was serving his sentence.
In January 2016, a federal judge sentenced Kurbanov, an Uzbek national, to 25 years for conspiring and attempting to provide support to a terrorist organization and possessing an unregistered destructive device, according to authorities.
Kurbanov had animosity toward the U.S. military and wanted to target U.S. military bases in Idaho and Texas, according to authorities.
Wednesday, Kurbanov was named in a three-count indictment by a federal grand jury.
The indictment that charges Kurbanov with attempted murder of a federal officer, assault on a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon, and possession by an inmate of a prohibited object intended to be used as a weapon.
The indictment alleges that Kurbanov used a prison-made knife to attack Warden Calvin Johnson at the Federal Correctional Institute at Victorville on May 31, 2016.
Warden Johnson, who is now serving at another facility operated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, was seriously injured in the attack, but he has recovered.
Kurbanov currently is serving a 25-year sentence imposed last year by a federal judge in Idaho after being found guilty of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and possessing an unregistered destructive device.
In relation to the new indictment filed Wednesday in Riverside, Kurbanov will be brought into federal court for an arraignment in the coming weeks.
If he is convicted of all three charges in the indictment, Kurbanov is facing up to 45 years in prison. Kurbanov is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.