http://www.denverpost.com/popular/ci_19856309
AURORA — The Uzbek refugee facing terrorism charges in Denver was a merchant turned human-rights activist who tried to defend farmers, opposed Uzbekistan's dictator after a 2005 massacre, endured a detention that left him bloody, saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge, then fled by night to neighboring Kyrgyzstan dressed as a woman.
The plight of Jamshid Muhtorov, 35, looked so bleak that the United Nations and U.S. government rescued him, along with his wife and two small children. U.S. authorities gave Muhtorov a comfortable new perch in Colorado, where state officials estimate as many as 157 other Uzbeks have been resettled after escaping a human-rights disaster.
But now the same government that rescued Muhtorov is prosecuting him under a law that prohibits materiall support" for terrorists.
FBI agents arrested him in Chicago on Jan. 21 while he was en route to Turkey. A federal grand jury indicted him for allegedly providing material support to the Islamic Jihad Union — which the U.S. State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization — and attempting to provide material support.
AURORA — The Uzbek refugee facing terrorism charges in Denver was a merchant turned human-rights activist who tried to defend farmers, opposed Uzbekistan's dictator after a 2005 massacre, endured a detention that left him bloody, saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge, then fled by night to neighboring Kyrgyzstan dressed as a woman.
The plight of Jamshid Muhtorov, 35, looked so bleak that the United Nations and U.S. government rescued him, along with his wife and two small children. U.S. authorities gave Muhtorov a comfortable new perch in Colorado, where state officials estimate as many as 157 other Uzbeks have been resettled after escaping a human-rights disaster.
But now the same government that rescued Muhtorov is prosecuting him under a law that prohibits materiall support" for terrorists.
FBI agents arrested him in Chicago on Jan. 21 while he was en route to Turkey. A federal grand jury indicted him for allegedly providing material support to the Islamic Jihad Union — which the U.S. State Department has designated a foreign terrorist organization — and attempting to provide material support.
