PITTSBURGH – Federal prosecutors want a Russian-born college student returned to jail while he awaits trial on charges that he built bombs in his off-campus apartment in central Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that 18-year-old Vladislav Miftakhov remains a danger to the community and a risk to flee prosecution if he's allowed to move back to his family's San Carlos, Calif., home until trial.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto on Monday agreed with Miftakhov's public defender that the charges, though serious, involve making explosives that Miftakhov detonated for kicks and weren't meant to harm others.
But prosecutors say Miftakhov is on probation for burglary-related charges in California, uses drugs, and has too few ties to Pennsylvania to guarantee he won't flee.
The Penn State-Altoona student was arrested Jan. 24 after a tip from his landlord.
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