By JAY REEVES
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — An Uzbek man who came to America pursuing an Ivy League medical degree but wound up working seven days a week at a mall kiosk in Alabama was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison Friday for plotting to kill President Barack Obama.
U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon imposed the sentence on Ulugbek Kodirov, 22. He had faced up to 30 years in prison.
Written and oral court pleadings showed Kodirov, whose parents are professionals who worked for the government in his native Uzbekistan, was accepted to study medicine at Columbia University in New York but never enrolled because his English was too poor.
He later moved to Alabama for a job and worked at the massive Riverchase Galleria in suburban Hoover, where the defense said he used his laptop and free wi-fi service to connect with extremists who turned him against the United States.
Wearing an orange jail uniforms and leg chains, Kodirov apologized in halting English.
“I am truly sorry for every mistake that I have done,” he told the judge.
Defense attorney Lance Bell argued that Kodirov — who had the equivalent of a nursing degree in his native country before he moved to New York — had accepted responsibility for his actions and was trying to straighten out his life. He said Kodirov wasn’t “a big, bad terrorist.”
“I’m not calling him a victim, but he’s a victim to a degree of social media,” Bell said.