FBI: Uzbek refugee living in Aurora backs militant group

By Bruce Finley and Felisa Cardona

AURORA — FBI agents are building a terrorism case against an Uzbek refugee in Colorado whose e-mail indicated support for a militant group fighting Uzbekistan’s authoritarian regime.
Aurora resident Jamshid Muhtorov, 35, faces charges of providing and trying to provide material support for the Islamic Jihad Union, which the U.S. State Department has designated as a terrorist organization. He was arrested Saturday night at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, en route from Denver to Asia.
He waived his right to district court hearings in Chicago. Federal marshals will transport him to Denver, where Department of Justice officials said the case will be prosecuted.
Muhtorov took refuge here in 2007 after he was
forced out of Uzbekistan, the former Soviet central Asian nation where U.S. defense officials under President George W. Bush courted dictator Islam Karimov in return for access to a military base just north of Afghanistan.
A devout Muslim, Muhtorov, working as a trucker, lived here with his wife and two children. They lived in apartments where he used a Sony Vaio laptop and a smartphone to convey support to the extent that he was “ready for any task, even with the risk of dying” for the Islamic Jihad Union cause, according to a federal affidavit released Monday.

Kevin Inman, with his 2-year-old daughter, Isabella, lives next door to Uzbek refugee Jamshid Muhtorov in the Raintree East apartments at 9901 E. Evans Ave. in Aurora. Muhtorov, arrested Saturday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, faces charges of providing and trying to provide material support for the Islamic Jihad Union, a militant group fighting Uzbekistan’s regime. “It’s a world economy, this place is getting smaller, and being next to that doesn’t surprise me at all,” another resident said. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)