RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - The start of the trial of a former Soviet army officer accused of being a Taliban fighter has been postponed by a day until Tuesday, court records showed late on Sunday.
The suspect, Irek Hamidullin, believed to be in his 50s, faces 15 counts ranging from supporting terrorists to firearms charges stemming from his orchestration of a 2009 attack on an Afghan Border Police base. He is the first military prisoner from Afghanistan to be tried in U.S. federal court.
Hamidullin, a former Soviet officer and tank commander in
the early 1980s, was indicted by a grand jury in October 2014 and transported to the United States from Afghanistan.