Al-Qaida suspect linked to cartoonist plot pleads not guilty

PHILADELPHIA – An al-Qaida suspect linked to a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges.

A lawyer for 52-year-old Ali Charaf Damache, of Algeria, says his client appeared in federal court Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges he was involved in a terror cell that wanted to kill a cartoonist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog.

Records show Damache is being held in a federal detention centre in Philadelphia.

Prosecutors say the Ireland-based terror cell included a Pennsylvania woman known as Jihad Jane.

Damache is known as The Black Flag. He was brought from Spain to Philadelphia last month to be tried in a civilian court despite President Donald Trump’s promise to send terror suspects to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.