al-Qaida operative pleads guilty in Philadelphia court
PHILADELPHIA — An Algerian-born al-Qaida operative who recruited Colleen “Jihad Jane” LaRose and others in a 2009 plot to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist pleaded guilty Monday and agreed to a 15-year prison term, bringing the final conviction in one of Philadelphia’s longest-running terrorism cases.
The plea by Ali Charaf Damache — who was indicted in 2011 and has been held in custody in Philadelphia since his extradition from Spain last year — came as something of a surprise. Just eight months earlier, the pugnacious defendant interrupted one of his earliest court appearances, demanding he be allowed to fire his lawyer and alleging he had been fed false promises of a shorter sentence in exchange for cooperating with authorities.
But in Monday’s hearing before U.S. District Judge Petrese B. Tucker, Damache, 53, was significantly more subdued. He mumbled responses to a series of questions from the bench, showing only glimpses of his earlier combativeness.
Asked by Judge Tucker whether he was pleading guilty because he believed himself to be guilty, he hesitated for a moment before responding: “I think so. Yes.”
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2018/07/24/al-Qaeda-operative-pleads-guilty-in-Philadelphia-court/stories/201807230189
