An Uzbek man pleaded guilty on Friday for plotting to kill President Barack Obama, according a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Northern Alabama.
Ulugbek Kodirov, who was illegally living in Birmingham, Ala., admitted guilty on weapons and terrorist charges in the assassination plot, the statement reads.
Court evidence showed that Kodirov believed he was in a plot to kill the president for an Islamist militant group based in Uzbekistan, a landlocked Central Asian county, the statement says. He faces as many as 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine after pleading guilty.
“Kodirov was apprehended during an undercover operation in which he was attempting to obtain weapons and explosives,” U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance stated, adding that Muslim community members in Birmingham were “instrumental in helping law enforcement shut down this threat.”
Kodirov was arrested in July at a motel in Alabama after he obtained an automatic machine gun and four hand grenades from an undercover FBI agent.
