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Canadian Muslim sentenced for firebombing Jewish institutions
The police wiretaps and surveillance captured wild plans for jihad, from bombing the Montreal Stock Exchange to the sordid kidnapping, robbery and murder of a randomly selected gay man. But the recordings from a wannabe terrorist's home also contained key evidence, including the clinking propane bottles of a homemade bomb, that led yesterday to the conviction of a man who tried to terrorize Montreal's Jewish community.Omar Bulphred pleaded guilty to arson and uttering threats for firebombing a Jewish school and Jewish community centre. No one was injured in the attacks. Mr. Bulphred, 23, was handed a sentence of seven years. Quebec Court Judge Louise Boudreau accepted a plea bargain that gave him credit for time served since his arrest, leaving a remaining sentence of 40 months. Crown prosecutor Mario Dufresne said wiretaps were key to snaring Mr. Bulphred and his underling accomplice, Azim Ibragimov. "It's a very efficient means of collecting evidence, and in this file they were very important to link together the accused," Mr. Dufresne said outside court. Mr. Bulphred apologized in court for his "cowardly acts," but the contrition and plea bargain left one Jewish leader cold. "This is a homegrown Montreal terrorist who ignited firebombs with a view to destroying people and property," said Adam Atlas, a vice-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. "The signal sent by the court is not severe enough to dissuade others." Mr. Bulphred was attending class at the Aerospace Trade School of Montreal on a late winter day in 2007 when a police technician bugged his apartment. Over a month, the wiretaps and surveillance showed the two men researching bomb-making and looking at a nuclear plant and a military base as terrorism targets. They talked about snatching the first gay man they could find at a Montreal rave party. Mr. Bulphred mused they could stab him in the leg to force him to give up his bank machine code, or perhaps they could cut his throat "like a chicken." On April 8, 2007, the police arrested the two men. "It was getting too dangerous, considering the last conversation. We couldn't afford to wait," Detective-Sergeant Sylvie Beauregard said in testimony under publication ban until yesterday. The wiretaps revealed the limits of police surveillance and the laborious gumshoe work required to bolster bugs. The first attack took place Sept. 2, 2006, when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys School. Ten days later, a letter was delivered claiming responsibility on behalf of the "Islamic Jihad" and demanding the release of 17 Muslim terror suspects arrested earlier that year in Toronto. The police got a breakthrough when firefighters doused a small accidental fire in Mr. Bulphred's apartment, where investigators found the same matches used in the school attack. The Algerian-born Canadian citizen was known to police for the anti-American and anti-Jewish rants he wrote while in jail on previous petty offences. Police watched Mr. Bulphred, but gave up for lack of evidence. Investigators got back on his trail through Mr. Ibragimov, a grocery bagger of Kazakh origin, whose handwriting matched threatening notes. Mr. Ibragimov then bragged about the attack to an undercover cop. Despite the police shadow, the pair struck again on April 3, 2007, using a bomb made with propane canisters to strike the YM-YWHA Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre. The contraption caused only minor damage. Police had interrupted their surveillance that day. A wiretap recorded March 30 featuring clanking sounds and the two men talking about bottles was only heard the day after the attack. Posted by: ryuge 2009-02-13 |
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