PHILADELPHIA

Maryland teen accused of helping ‘Jihad Jane’

An American 17-year-old from Pakistan is being held on terrorism charges, accused of soliciting funds and recruits to help a Pennsylvania woman known as Jihad Jane, two people close to the inquiry confirm.

Juvenile charges filed last month accuse the youth of helping Colleen LaRose support overseas terrorists she had met online, they said Friday.

LaRose, 48, has pleaded guilty to charges she plotted to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims.

The Maryland teen had accepted a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins University, according to a person close to his family. Instead, he remains in custody at a youth facility in Pennsylvania.

According to the person, the FBI searched the home of the family — all legal residents — near Baltimore and interviewed the teen several times at FBI headquarters without a lawyer or relative present.

His parents, however, had authorized the interviews.

The teen met LaRose online when he was 15, according to the person close to the investigation and LaRose’s indictment.

A law enforcement official confirmed details of his arrest to The Associated Press.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the sealed juvenile case.

The AP is not publicizing the teen’s name because of his age.

The teen’s lawyer, Jeffrey M. Lindy, told the AP it would be “very inappropriate” for him to comment on the case, which he called “highly sensitive.”

SAN DIEGO

Judge: Prison doctors may forcibly medicate Loughner

A federal judge ruled Friday that prison doctors may continue to forcibly medicate the man accused in the deadly Arizona shooting rampage, saying he refused to second-guess medical experts who concluded that the suspect’s condition deteriorated.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said Jared Lee Loughner kept himself awake for 50 hours straight after an appeals court stopped the forced medication July 1. Loughner walked in circles until he developed sores and then declined antibiotics to treat an infected foot.

Already thin, he stopped eating and shed 9 pounds.

The prison’s decision to resume medication July 18 “seems entirely appropriate and reasonable to me,” Burns said.

Loughner’s attorneys argued unsuccessfully that a court should review whether the forcible medications could resume.

The ruling came in a three-hour pretrial hearing that offered insights into Loughner’s fragile condition at federal prison in Springfield, Mo., where he is on suicide watch.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.

 

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