‘Jihad Jane’ Pleads Not Guilty to Terror Plot Charges (Update2)
March 18, 2010, 12:33 PM EDT(Adds date of trial in third paragraph.)
By Steven Church and Christopher Yasiejko
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- A Pennsylvania woman who used the alias “Jihad Jane” pleaded not guilty to charges she plotted to recruit jihadist fighters and conspired to murder a Swedish resident.
Colleen LaRose, also known as Fatima LaRose, of Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, entered her plea today in federal court in Philadelphia, under tighter-than-normal security. A four-count indictment was unsealed against LaRose on March 9 charging her with conspiring to provide support to terrorists and commit murder in a foreign country, making false statements and attempted identity theft.
During the court hearing, which took less than 10 minutes, LaRose didn’t react as charges were read against her. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynne A. Sitarski set a May 3 trial date for the case.
The courtroom was crowded, with people standing in the back. Visitors were required to pass through a portable metal detector set up outside the room in addition to the permanent one at the entrance to the courthouse. At least four Homeland Security vehicles were parked outside.
“She has some awareness” of the national interest in her case, her attorney, Mark Wilson, said in an interview after the hearing.
LaRose, who was arrested on Oct. 16, and five unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators allegedly recruited men and women on the Internet, discussed plans of martyring themselves, solicited funds for terrorists and attempted to avoid travel restrictions to wage a “violent Jihad,” prosecutors said.
European Travel
LaRose also allegedly traveled to Europe around Aug. 23 after receiving a direct order to kill the Swedish citizen in such a way that would frighten non-Muslims.
The New York Times reported March 15 that LaRose was tied to a group of people arrested in Ireland earlier this month on suspicion of plotting to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. LaRose spent two weeks in Ireland last year with some of those arrested in the Vilks plot, the newspaper said.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq put a $100,000 bounty on Vilks after Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a cartoon by Vilks that depicted the prophet Mohammed with a dog’s body in 2007.
If convicted, LaRose faces life imprisonment and a $1 million fine.
The case is U.S. v. Colleen R. LaRose, 10-cr-00123, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).
--With assistance from Sophia Pearson in Wilmington, Delaware. Editors: Glenn Holdcraft, Mary Romano.
To contact the reporter on this story: Steven Church in Wilmington at schurch@bloomberg.net; Christopher Yasiejko in federal court in Philadelphia at yasiejko@gmail.com.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.
