‘Jihad Jane’ gets 10 years in prison for terrorism plot

Philadelphia: Colleen LaRose, the Pennsylvania woman who went by the alias “Jihad Jane”, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in a plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist who ridiculed the Islamic Prophet Mohammed.

The US district judge Petrese B. Tucker imposed the sentence on Monday in federal court in Philadelphia. LaRose pleaded guilty in February 2011 to conspiring to provide support to terrorists and commit murder in a foreign country. She has been jailed since her arrest in October 2009.

LaRose, also known as Fatima LaRose, of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, worked with other indicted co-conspirators through the internet to recruit men and women for terrorist groups. She also solicited funds for terrorists by using e-mail and YouTube accounts to publish literature and videos, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors tied LaRose to a group plotting to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who drew a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed with a dog’s body in 2007.

Two other co-conspirators, Mohammad Hassan Khalid, a Pakistani native who had been living in Maryland, and Jamie Paulin Ramirez, a former Colorado resident, are scheduled to be sentenced later this week. Khalid and another man, Ali Charaf Damache, allegedly helped LaRose provide logistical and financial support and recruitment services in the plot. Both were charged with crimes including conspiracy and identity theft in October 2011.

Khalid pleaded guilty in May 2012. Damache, an Algerian who acted as LaRose’s handler, has been fighting extradition from Ireland, where he was arrested on unrelated charges. Bloomberg