Teen charged with aiding Jihad Jane

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- A Maryland teenager, the son of Pakistani immigrants, has been charged with conspiring with a convert to Islam who called herself Jihad Jane, his family says.

The 17-year-old, identified as Mohammed K. of Ellicott City, was arrested in July on federal charges, relatives said. They told The Philadelphia Inquirer the FBI talked to Mohammed eight times without a lawyer or parent present before charging him.

"Now we know that was a mistake," a relative said. "We had thought everything was taken care of and fine because he talked to the FBI so many times -- but the next thing you know, a year later, without any warning, the FBI took Mohammed away. It was a shock to us and to him."

Colleen LaRose, 47, who lived in the Philadelphia suburbs, pleaded guilty earlier this year to terrorism-related charges. Prosecutors said she tried to recruit others to terrorism, using the name Jihad Jane, and traveled to Europe as part of a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist.

Mohammed K. allegedly tried to raise money for LaRose on the Internet after meeting her in a chat room, sources told the Inquirer.

His family said Mohammed was a good student who had been accepted by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a full scholarship.