Woman in ‘JihadJane’ case silent at hearing

By Nathan Gorenstein INQUIRER STAFF WRITER The second woman charged in the "JihadJane" case, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, is deeply worried about her six-year-old son and stunned at the international attention she has received after voluntarily returning to the United States, her attorney said Wednesday.

Paulin-Ramirez, 31, was ordered detained for trial at a brief federal court hearing where she shook her head to indicate a not guilty plea, rather than use her voice.

She is accused of traveling to Europe last fall with her son at the invitation of a Montgomery County woman, Colleen R. LaRose, also known as "JihadJane."

Both women are charged in connection with an alleged plot against the life of a Swedish artist, Lars Vilk, whose 2007 drawing of a dog with the head of Muhammad offended some Muslims.

Paulin-Ramirez is accused of providing "material support. . .to be used in preparation for and in carrying out. . .(a) conspiracy to kill in a foreign country," according to the indictment.

Paulin-Ramirez's silence in U.S. District Court was an effort to keep evidence - her voice - out of the hands of prosecutors, who may have voice recordings that they will use in prosecuting the case, said defense attorney Jeremy H. Gonzalez Ibrahim.

Ibrahim said his client faces a single, lesser charge than the varied accusations against LaRose, and that she returned from Ireland last week to clear her name. Her son is now in custody of child welfare officials.

"She came back to the United States because she was told. . .that charges were going to be lodged against her. She came back voluntarily," he said.

Paulin-Ramirez and LaRose, 46, were allegedly involved with a group of Muslim extremists, based in Ireland, seeking sympathizers whose passports and appearances would allow them to "travel in and around Europe in support of violent jihad," prosecutors say.

After the hearing, Ibrahim noted that Paulin Ramirez was a single-mother who had, over a matter of months in 2009, "converted to a different faith," left her job and flew off to a foreign country. There, prosecutors say she married a man she had never met in person.

That raises the question of whether she has adequate "mental fortitude," said Ibrahim.

Asking how she is faring in custody, Ibrahim said she is "extremely distraught, she's been separated from her son." She is also now 12 weeks pregnant, he said, and her family in Leadville, Colo., can't afford to travel to Philadelphia.

Paulin-Ramirez has two associate degrees, in computer science and medical records, and was working in the health fields. She left Colorado for Europe last September.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer A. Williams said that while LaRose is charged with the federal equivalent of conspiring to murder, Paulin-Ramirez is charged with providing support and material aide to conspirators "knowing they were to be used in preparation" for a killing.

The charge against Paulin-Ramirez carries a penalty of up to 15-years in jail, while LaRose could face life imprisonment.

The charges against LaRose and Paulin-Ramirez are among the few terrorism-related indictments to have been brought against U.S. women. Both are converts to Islam.

LaRose's arrest last October was kept secret until Irish law enforcement officials last month swept up a ring of seven alleged terrorist plotters. Paulin-Ramirez was in that group. She was released soon afterward and was never charged.

Ibrahim pointed noted that decision by Irish prosecutors.

According to the indictment, on Aug. 1, 2009, LaRose sent Paulin-Ramirez an email that read: "when our brother(s) defend our faith (&) their homes, they are terrorist . . . . fine, then i am a terrorist & proud to be this."

Ramirez replied, "thats right . . . . if thats how they call it then so be it i am what i am."

A month later Ramirez traveled to Europe with her son to "with the intent to live and train with jihadists," and a day after arriving in Ireland married an Algerian man she had met online. It was her fourth marriage.

Friends and relatives have described both as having difficult episodes in their lives. LaRose moved to the Philadelphia area from Texas about 10 years ago and lived with a man in Pennsburg. She was married at 16 to a man twice her age.