Algerian man in Waterford made death threats to Michigan lawyer after Islam protest

Irish court hears claim that Ali Charaf Damache threatened to kill Majed Moughni

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Ali Charaf Damache, is accompanied by Irish police for an appearance at Waterford District Court to be remanded into custody on March 13, 2010.

Photo by Patrick Browne / Reuters file

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An Algerian man living in Ireland threatened to shoot an American lawyer who organized a Michigan rally against terrorism in the name of Islam.

Waterford Circuit Court has heard that 45-year-old Ali Charaf Damache denies charges of threatening to kill a man in America.

The Irish Independent reports that Damache is originally from Algeria and has been living in Waterford for a number of years.

The court heard that Damache made the threatening call from Ireland to Michigan-based lawyer Majed Moughni on the day after the rally.

Moughni had organised the rally outside a Detroit courthouse ‘to denounce acts of terrorism in the name of Islam.’

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The court heard that a man ‘considered to be a Muslim extremist,’ had appeared in a Detroit courthouse on January 8, 2010 when he was due to be charged in relation to an attempted bombing at Detroit Airport on December 25, 2009.

Father-of-four Moughni set up a webpage to promote his rally and included his office telephone number on the page.

Prosecutor Michael Delaney told the Waterford court: “The subsequent rally was considered a success and received quite a bit of publicity around the world.

“In the early hours of the following day Mr Moughni received a telephone call from someone who didn’t identify himself but spoke with an Algerian accent.

“At one point during the conversation, the caller said: ‘If you are in front of me, I would shoot you. I would put a bullet in your head.’

“He subsequently said: ‘Even in America, we will get you, you will pay.’”

Delaney outlined to the court that it is the prosecution’s case that the man who made the telephone call was Ali Charaf Damache.

Moughni and his wife are to give evidence by video-link from Michigan on Wednesday with the trial expected to last about a week.

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