Washington, July 14 (ANI): A 22-year-old Uzbek man, who was sentenced to over 15 years in prison for plotting to kill U.S. President Barack Obama was 'a victim of social media', his lawyer has claimed.
Ulugbek Kodirov's Defense attorney Lance Bell accepted responsibility for his client's actions, but tried to straighten out his life, saying Kodirov was not a 'big, bad terrorist.'
"I'm not calling him a victim, but he's a victim to a degree of social media,"News.com.au quoted Bell, as saying.
Kodirov pleaded guilty in February to threatening to kill Obama, providing material support to terrorism and unlawfully possessing a firearm.
He said he came up with the plan to kill the president as he campaigned for re-election after communicating online with a man he believed to be a member of an Uzbek Islamic group the United States classifies as a terrorist organisation.
According to the report, assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Whisonant said that Kodirov would have tried to kill Obama, and a foreign group would have taken credit, if he had not been arrested a year ago.
"This case is an example of how our youth can be radicalized by the propaganda and lies on the Internet," Whisonant added. (ANI)
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