U.S. Department of Justice Jeffrey A. Taylor United States Attorney for the District of Columbia Judiciary Center 555 4th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 PRESS RELEASE   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   For Information, Contact Public Affairs Channing Phillips (202) 514-6933 Friday, December 8, 2006

Liberian Man Sentenced to 33 Months in Jail for Scheme to Extort Ransom Money for Kidnaped Christian Science Journalist

Washington, D.C. - Kelvin Kamara, 27, a Liberian national, was sentenced today by the Honorable Rosemary M. Collyer to 33 months of incarceration, announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Kamara had pled guilty on September 7, 2006, to a scheme to extort $2 million in ransom money for kidnaped Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll.

“Today’s sentence sends a message to anyone, anywhere who would use the internet and other means of communication to victimize others that there is a hard price to pay for such misconduct,” stated U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor.

According to the government’s submissions to the court, on January 7, 2006, armed gunmen in Iraq kidnaped Jill Carroll. At the time, Carroll was working as a freelance journalist for The Christian Science Monitor.

On February 12, 2006, Kamara, who was then residing in Germany, sent an e-mail to the Washington, D.C. Bureau of The Christian Science Monitor. Using the alias “Saidu Mohammed,” Kamara wrote:

I can give you informations (sic) to secure the release of jill carroll, i am mujaheeden and i can give every information that can lead to securing her release . . . . i am impatiently waiting to read from you for further directives and negotiations . . . . saidu mohammed.

The e-mail was false. Kamara had no association with the real kidnapers, nor was he even in Iraq.

On February 14, 2006, Kamara, continuing to pose as “Saidu Mohammed,” sent the Washington Bureau Chief of The Christian Science Monitor an e-mail demanding $2 million in ransom money “or else Jill is likely to become history.”

Over the next month, Kamara, by phone and e-mail, made repeated demands to The Christian Science Monitor for $2 million in ransom to secure the release of Jill Carroll. He also repeatedly claimed that Carroll would die if he did not receive the ransom money.

The German police, through electronic monitoring, were able to trace the phone that Kamara was using to call The Christian Science Monitor’s Washington Bureau Chief to an apartment in Muenster, Germany. By similar means, the German police were also able to determine that several of the ransom e-mails that Kamara sent emanated from a computer located in the same apartment.

On March 16, 2006, the German police searched the apartment in Munster, Germany. Kamara was present when the police arrived. During the search, they discovered the telephone that Kamara was using to contact The Christian Science Monitor. A search of a computer seized in the apartment revealed that it contained several of the e-mails that Kamara had sent to The Christian Science Monitor’s Washington Bureau.

Pursuant to a request from the United States, the German authorities arrested Kamara on March 16, 2006. He was extradited to the United States on August 25, 2006.

In announcing today’s sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor and Assistant Director in Charge Persichini praised the investigative work of FBI Special Agent Charles Price and Assistant Legal Attaché Kristen McLeran as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay I. Bratt, who prosecuted the case. They also expressed their gratitude for the excellent assistance provided by Michael Erhard of the Hessiisches Landeskriminalamt in Wiesbaden, Germany.