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US man receives jail for Obama death threats

US former President Barack Obama delivers a speech in Milan, May 9, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

A man in the US state of Oregon has been sentenced to prison after making death threats against former President Barack Obama.

District Judge Michael J. McShane sentenced John Martin Roos, 62, to five years and three months in Prison last week, after he pleaded guilty to making “violent social media posts” online, The Hill reported Sunday.

“Threats of violence directed at public officials and law enforcement are a serious matter,” the US attorney for Oregon, Billy J. William was quoted as saying by local media. “Violent social media posts are every bit as serious as those made in other venues.”

Roos caught the law enforcement’s radar in July 2016, when “concerned individuals” reported his online messages about killing Obama and shooting FBI agents.

Two months later, he was arrested outside a rehabilitation center that he was a patient at. Police found a rifle, a shotgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his bedroom. The officers also found four pipe bombs in his home.

He admitted to the judges that he had made online threats against Obama, then first lady Michelle, and their two daughters. He had also threatened to “snipe” FBI agents with “hunting rifles.”

Ross told prosecutors in an interview that his threats against the FBI came after the police killing of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, 56, one of the Oregon protesters who took over a remote wildlife refuge as a sign of protest against government land-grabbing and over-reaching in January 2016.

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“FBI acts like they are something to be feared after ambushing American patriots in Oregon ... We will snipe them with hunting rifles everywhere,” he once wrote on Facebook.

Roos was hit with a 14-count federal indictment in the court. The prosecutors charged him with eight counts of threatening to kill the president, two counts of making threats against FBI officers and four counts of possession of an unregistered destructive device.


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