A federal trial is underway this week for an Uzbek refugee charged with supporting a terrorist organization.
Fazliddin Kurbanov, a Russian-speaking truck driver who fled Uzbekistan in 2009, was arrested in 2013 by federal authorities who said he was teaching people to build bombs to target public transportation and other targets.
Prosecutors say Kurbanov travelled the West assisting a militant group in his native Uzbekistan, a Central Asian country that has a southern border with Afghanistan. The 32-year-old, who lives in Boise, has pleaded not guilty to the five terrorism-related charges.
Jury selection was expected to take all day Monday at the federal courthouse in Boise as attorneys continued to winnow a pool of 92 potential jurors.
Prosecutors have charged Kurbanov with committing felonies in Idaho and Utah, saying he conspired with others to provide resources, including computer software and money, to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The U.S. has identified the IMU as a terrorist organization.
Kurbanov has denied all of the allegations. In a trial brief filed by the defence late last month, his attorneys wrote, "Mr. Kurbanov never agreed or attempted to provide material support to the IMU or to terrorists as alleged (by providing personnel, money or software); nor did he possess an unregistered destructive device."
Kurbanov's attorneys have also questioned the validity of some of the emails and online conversations prosecutors are expected to present as evidence.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the originating wire service. It has not been edited by Globe staff.