The teenager from Ellicott City who is charged with using the Internet to solicit money for a convicted terrorist who called herself "Jihad Jane" pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia. The hearing was brief; a trial date was set for December.
Attorneys for the Mount Hebron High School graduate, in interviews outside the courtroom, portrayed their client, Mohammad Massan Khalid as a stellar student with a family described as the "true American immigrant story."
They said federal prosecutors misconstrued the emails they intercepted on Internet chat boards but noted their client's life has been destroyed. He withdrew from Johns Hopkins University, where he had a full scholarship this fall. He was arrested in secret when he was 17 years old; the charges were unsealed last week, after he had turned 18.
Federal prosecutors have outlined an indictment that alleges Khalid tried to raise money to help fund a holy war in Europe. More on the prosecution's case in today's story. He is being detained in federal custody until his trial, one of the country's youngest terror suspects.
