16/03/2010

Suspected Cartoonist Plotters Appear In Court

Two of the men held in connection with a plot to murder a Swedish cartoonist have appeared in court.

Ali Charafe Damache, from Algeria, and Abdul-Salam Mansour Al-Jehani from Libya were remanded in custody at a special sitting of Waterford District Court last night.

A third man, who had been in custody, was released without charge shortly after 6.00pm and Gardaí said a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Damache, 44, of John Collins House, High Street, Waterford has been living in Ireland for about 10 years. He was brought to the courthouse in Waterford under a heavy Garda presence clad in a black head scarf obscuring his face.

He was charged with sending a menacing text message on January 9 and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Mr Al-Jehani, 32, of Johnstown in Waterford, was charged with an immigration offence after allegedly admitting to investigators that he gave a false name when he came to Ireland to claim asylum in July 2001.

The men were among seven people arrested by anti-terrorist units acting on intelligence from the CIA, FBI and European agencies during a series of raids last Tuesday.

The two are believed to be connected to a conspiracy to murder Lars Vilks, a cartoonist who penned satirical depictions of the Muslim prophet Muhammad that were printed in a newspaper in Sweden in 2007.

(DW/BMcC)


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