Al-Qaeda Terrorist Who Recruited Montco Woman Sentenced: DOJ

The al-Qaeda operative who recruited Montgomery County's "Jihad Jane" and plotted to kill a Swedish cartoonist has been sentenced to jail, authorities said.

Ali Charaf Damache, 53, will spend the next 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

Also known as "Theblackflag," Damache worked with another man, Mohammad Hassan Khalid, to recruit a cell of men and women in both Europe and the United States. One of those women was Colleen R. LaRose, of Pennsburg, also known as "Jihad Jane," authorities said.

"Today’s sentencing marks the end of a long and arduous prosecution that has spanned more than nine years, involved four defendants and five unnamed co-conspirators, and required multiple coordinated international arrests and two extradition applications,” U. S. Attorney McSwain said in a statement.

Damache, a citizen of Algeria, trained LaRose and several more in the cell in the ways of violent jihad, and taught them how to recruit others online, the U.S. Attorney said. One of the cell's members young son was also taught how to wage jihad.

Though the cell operated around the world, they traveled most frequently to Ireland, authorities said. Among their plans was to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist in 2009.

"Damache and his co-conspirators were motivated by hate and prejudice, and their criminal activities presented a very real danger to our country and the world," McSwain added.

LaRose, meanwhile, has been in prison since 2014, serving a 10-year sentence.

Patch file photo