Irish police free fourth suspect in cartoonist plot probe
Posted: 14 March 2010 0859 hrs

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	Related News • US woman held in Ireland in plot to kill Swedish cartoonist • US 'JihadJane' arrested for terror recruiting

DUBLIN : A fourth Muslim arrested over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who drew the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog has been released without charge, Irish police said Saturday.

The woman was detained Tuesday as part of a group of seven people over an alleged plot to assassinate Lars Vilks, who has a 100,000-dollar (74,000-euro) bounty on his head from an Al-Qaeda-linked group.

Three men remain in custody. Two other women and a man were freed without charge Friday.

Police said files on all four suspects freed so far will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), meaning charges could still be brought.

"A female arrested on March 9 and detained at Thomastown Garda (police) station (in southeast Ireland) has been released from custody this afternoon," said a brief statement.

Those originally arrested were three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian, a Croatian and a US national, a police source told AFP on Thursday. They ranged in age from mid 20s to late 40s.

The Wall Street Journal reported that one of the women detained was 31-year-old US citizen Jamie Paulin-Ramirez.

The controversy started when Swedish regional daily Nerikes Allehanda published Vilks' satirical cartoon in 2007.

This prompted protests by Muslims in the town of Oerebro, west of Stockholm, where the newspaper is based, while Egypt, Iran and Pakistan made formal complaints.

An Al-Qaeda front organisation then offered 100,000 dollars to anyone who murdered Vilks -- with an extra 50,000 if his throat was slit -- and 50,000 dollars for the death of Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief Ulf Johansson.

The row echoed the uproar caused in Denmark by the publication in 2005 of 12 drawings focused on Islam, including one showing the Prophet Mohammed with a turban in the shape of a bomb.

This week, the Irish Independent newspaper reported that a suspect known as "JihadJane", the online name of Colleen LaRose, spent two weeks in Ireland last September on a "fact-finding trip" before her arrest in October.

LaRose has been indicted for recruiting jihadist fighters in the US, Europe and Asia in a bid to carry out terror plots.

US prosecutors said LaRose had agreed to carry out the murder of a Swedish resident, pledging "only death will stop me."

The US Justice Department has declined to say if LaRose was connected to the alleged plot to kill Vilks.

- AFP/ir