A teenager of Pakistani origin resident in the US has admitted to assisting in the so-called “Jihad Jane” plot to murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks.
The 18-year-old on Friday pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and faces up to 15 years imprisonment, according to a report in the Star Tribune daily.
Mohammad Hassan Khalid once appeared to have a bright future in the US after completing high school with honours and winning a full scholarship to prestigious Johns Hopkins University, until his arrest by the FBI last summer aged 17.
Khalid admitted to being involved in the plot led by Colleen LaRose, a US woman dubbed “Jihad Jane”, to support an Irish terror cell in targeting the controversial Swedish artist as part of a European holy war.
LaRose, 47, pleaded guilty last year to related charges and could face life behind bars.
She was arrested in October 2009 for her role in a plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who unleashed a storm of protests from Muslims with his cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad seen as insulting to Islam.
While Mohammad Hassan Khalid is legally resident in the US, in difference from his family he had never become a naturalized US citizens and thus faces likely deportation after serving his sentence.