Uzbekistan national gets more than 15 years for Obama death plot

A federal judge in Birmingham has sentenced an Uzbek man to 15 and a half years in prison for plotting to kill President Obama.

U.S. District Judge Abdul Kallon could have sentenced 22-year-old Ulugbek Kodirov to 30 years in prison. Kodirov pleaded guilty in February 2012 to one count of threatening the President, one count of possessing a firearm as an illegal alien, and one count of material support of terrorism.

Kodirov has already spent one year in prison so he will be released from federal prison in 14 and a half years.

He will live under supervised probation for three years after being released. Authorities say he will then have to turn himself over to U.S. Marshalls who will facilitate his return to Uzbekistan.

According to the court proceedings, Kodirov initally came to the U.S. in 2009 to attend medical school at Columbia University in New York City. He eventually became an illegal alien when his visa was revoked and moved to Birmingham where he ran a kiosk in the Galleria.

According to his testimony, Kodirov came into contact with a group of people over the Internet who convinced him that Americans were killing Uzbeks. Kodirov's defense attorney, Lance Bell, contends that this group of people preyed upon his client's loneliness and homesickness to further their terrorist philosophy.

Copyright 2012 WBRC. All rights reserved. The AP contributed to this story.