‘South Park terrorist’ jailed for 11 years

A MUSLIM convert from New York has been sentenced to 11-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to threatening the writers of the satirical South Park television show for their depiction of the Prophet Mohammad, and to other criminal charges.

Jesse Curtis Morton, 33, who is also known as Younus Abdullah Muhammed, was put on three years of probation after he completes his prison term. The sentence was handed down yesterday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

Morton, who ran a website that encouraged Muslims to engage in violence against enemies of Islam, pleaded guilty in February to making threatening communications, using the internet to put others in fear and using his position as leader of the Revolution Muslim organisation’s internet sites to conspire to commit murder.

“Jesse Morton sought to inspire Muslims to engage in terrorism by providing doctrinal justification for violence against civilians in the name of Islam,” US Attorney Neil MacBride said.

“His crimes not only put people’s lives forever in danger, but they also chilled free expression out of fear of retaliation by violent terrorists,” Mr MacBride said in a statement.

Morton was arrested in Rabat, Morocco, last year.