'Jihad Jane' accomplice gets eight years in US jail

WASHINGTON, Jan 08, 2014 (AFP) - Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, an accomplice of the American woman nicknamed Jihad Jane, was sentenced on Wednesday, Jan 8, 2014, to eight years in jail for her role in a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist.

Paulin-Ramirez, 35, is an American convert to Islam who in 2009 wed an Algerian living in Ireland whom she had not personally met.

Prosecutors in Philadelphia said she wed to aid terrorists' activities in Europe, notably the plot to kill the cartoonist Lars Vilks who in 2007 outraged many Muslims by depicting the prophet Mohammed in the body of a dog.

Paulin-Ramirez, a single mother originally from Colorado, also was ordered to pay a US$2,500 (S$3,176) fine and to serve three years on probation after her release from jail, said a statement from US attorney Zane Memeger.

Like coconspirator Colleen Larose, dubbed Jihad Jane, Paulin-Ramirez in 2011 pleaded guilty to giving material support to a terrorist group. She was accused along with her husband of having had her son train in Europe for the act of Jihad.

On Monday, Larose, from Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 10 years after plotting to carry out deadly attacks in Europe and South Asia including the murder of the cartoonist, US justice officials said.

LaRose, 50, had already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements and to attempted identity theft.

LaRose also had received a direct order to kill Vilks, the authorities said.

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