Ali Charaf Damache

Ali Charaf Damache is a citizen of Algeria and Ireland who was the first suspected terrorist to be extradited to the USA during the Donald Trump presidency.[1][2] He was alleged to have been the ringleader of a cell tasked with killing Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist some Muslims accused of blasphemy for having drawn the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a cartoon.[3]

Ali Charaf Damache
Arrested2015
Spain
CitizenshipAlgeria, Ireland
Alternate name
  • Black Flag
  • The Black Flag

Although he was born in Algeria, he grew up in France.[4]

In 2009, Damache married Jamie Paulin Ramirez, an American convert to Islam he met online, through a dating site for American Muslims.[3] Ramirez would go by the nickname "Jihad Jamie", and would eventually receive an 8-year sentence for playing a role in the plot to kill Vilks.[5] Ramirez and Colleen LaRose, another American convert to Islam, traveled to Ireland to participate in the murder plot.[2][3][5][4] Ramirez and Damache wed the day she arrived in Ireland. Both Ramirez and LaRose were blonde, with blue eyes. Commentators would assert that Damache and his colleagues sought out blonde-haired, blue-eyed converts because, once radicalized, they would find it easy to cross borders without suspicion.

Law enforcement officials in Ireland arrested Damache and six other individuals, in Ireland, in 2010, after learning of the plot against Vilks.[4][6] LaRose, who went by the nickname "Jihad Jane", is reported to have tipped off authorities herself, after she grew disenchanted with Damache. While he had impressed her, online, she was disappointed after meeting him in person, and seeing he had trouble paying his bills.

LaRose returned to the US, where she pled guilty and received a ten-year sentence.[4][6] Damache was only charged with sending a threatening text message. Damache was arrested by the Irish police pursuant to an extradition request from the United States but was released by an Irish court.[7][8]

Spain arrested Damache, in December 2015, at the request of the USA.[1] The USA had charged Damache with trying to recruit others to terrorism, and leading the cell that included LaRose.[7] The USA announced they had received Damache on July 21, 2017.[2]

In 2018 Damache pleaded guity to terrorism offences and received a 15-year jail sentence.[9] He was notified by the Minister for Justice of Ireland of the intention to revoke his Irish citizenship, but he appealed this in the Irish courts. In October 2020 he won his appeal on the grounds of the unconstitutionality of the relevant section of the Irish citizenship act.[10]

References
  1. Henry Austin (2015-12-11). "Ali Charaf Damache arrested: Algerian-born terror suspect who recruited 'Jihad Jane' held in Spain: Colleen LaRose, who used the online name Jihad Jane, was convicted in 2011 of agreeing to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks". The Independent (UK). Archived from the original on 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2017-07-21. Ali Charaf Damache, who holds Irish citizenship, was accused of recruiting American women Colleen LaRose and Jamie Paulin-Ramirez via jihadist websites by the US Justice Department.
  2. "Trump administration transfers al Qaeda suspect to the U.S. to face terrorism charges". CBS News. 2017-07-21. Archived from the original on 2017-07-21. Damache was scheduled to appear in federal court Friday in Philadelphia, which the report says makes him the first foreigner brought to the U.S. to face terrorism charges under President Trump.
  3. John Shiffman (2012-12-08). "Special Report: a vow is confirmed; a jihad grows - Jane's Jihad". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2017-05-19. Retrieved 2017-07-21. Ramirez knew the man only by his real name, Ali Damache, and in his latest message to her, he persisted: Bring your son. Marry me. I will teach you Arabic and the mystical beauty of the Koran.
  4. Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart (2017). American Self-Radicalizing Terrorists and the Allure of "Jihadi Cool/Chic". Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 43, 45–50. ISBN 9781443874724. Retrieved 2017-07-21. In September 2009, in Waterford, Black Flag (Ali Damache, an Algerian who grew up in France, and had extensive experience in selling perfume and cosmetics at the women's section of a Paris department store) finally met his two prize recruits: LaRose (Jihadi Jane) and Ramirez (Jihad Jamie). LaRose arrived a few days ahead of Ramirez and Ramirez's son; on the day she arrived, Ramirez married Damache.
  5. John Schiffman (2014-01-08). "'Jihad Jamie' gets eight years in Jihad Jane case". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2016-07-03. Retrieved 2017-07-21. Prosecutors, who had sought at least a 20-year sentence for LaRose, asked for at least a 10-year sentence for Ramirez, alleging that she allowed the alleged Irish ringleader, Ali Charaf Damache, to train her young son for violence. They cited a video she recorded of the boy in Ireland wearing a robe and a scarf, and carrying toy gun. On the video, prosecutors said, she commands her son to "attack the kuffar," or non-believers, and he fires the toy gun.
  6. James Carr (2015). Experiences of Islamophobia: Living with Racism in the Neoliberal Era. Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 9781317529422. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  7. "Spain extradites first foreigner to face US terror charges under Trump". The Local. 2017-07-22. Retrieved 2017-07-21. Damache had contested his extradition. He was initially detained in Ireland, but a court there refused a US request to extradite him and he walked free. He was re-arrested in December 2015 in Barcelona and the Spanish government approved the US extradition request in February 2016.
  8. O’Riordan, Alison (22 May 2015). "Man's US extradition over terror refused". Irish Examiner.
  9. "Algerian-born Irish citizen Damache sentenced to 15 years in prison". www.rte.ie. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  10. "Supreme Court: Unconstitutional law governs procedure under which citizenship can be revoked". www.irishtimes.com. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
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