REUTERS/Suhaib Salem
An Uzbek refugee who was already serving 25 years in prison for terrorism charges has pleaded guilty to attempting to murder the warden of a federal prison. Fazliddin Kurbanov, 34, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder of a federal officer and admitted to attacking the warden at the Federal Correctional Institute in Victorville, California, with a prison-made knife in late May. The warden was seriously injured when Kurbanov tried to slit his throat, and is now working at a different federal prison. Kurbanov faces an additional 15 years behind bars, which he’ll serve consecutively with his 2016 sentence for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and possessing “an unregistered destructive device.” Kurbanov was found to be communicating with people associated with the IMU about wanting to build a bomb. He also looked up military bases as possible targets and obtained bomb-making materials, prosecutors said.