Boise man charged with terrorism gets new lawyer

BOISE – An Uzbek refugee accused of terrorism-related crimes in Idaho and Utah has a new lawyer whose resume includes successfully defending a man accused of murdering a federal agent and helping free a Saudi college student charged with working for a group funneling money to terrorists.

A federal judge appointed Charles Peterson to take over Fazliddin Kurbanov’s defense.

Kurbanov, 30, of Boise, has pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Boise to charges including that he helped teach people to build bombs to target public transportation.

Peterson, who didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday, has experience in some of Idaho’s highest-profile cases.

He was part of the defense team that helped win Randy Weaver’s acquittal on charges that he murdered a deputy U.S. marshal on North Idaho’s Ruby Ridge in August 1992. Weaver’s family later won a $3.1 million payment from the federal government, also with Peterson’s help.

And Peterson in 2004 helped defend Sami Al-Hussayen, a Saudi Arabian student at the University of Idaho who was acquitted in U.S. District Court of using his computer skills to support terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Al-Hussayen was acquitted of most charges before being sent back to Saudi Arabia.