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Canadian intended to pursue jihad, sentencing hearing told
A Mississauga man who pleaded guilty to participating in a bomb plot concocted by members of the so-called Toronto 18 "intended to pursue jihad in Canada," a Brampton court was told this morning. During final submissions at the sentencing hearing of Saad Khalid, Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said the 22-year-old was "an active and enthusiastic participant" in a deadly plot aimed at blowing up targets in downtown Toronto.Although he has pleaded guilty to participating in the foiled plot, lawyers on both sides are now arguing before Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno over how much Khalid really knew about it and what his intentions were. Michaelson told the court Khalid must have known the plan was to blow up the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Front Street offices of Canada's spy agency because he had been told by the alleged mastermind to take a camera and do reconnaissance work downtown. The prosecutor also pointed out the evidence suggests Khalid knew that the plot would have involved, at the very least, two tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer destined for truck bombs because he had been told about an order for the explosive material and was instructed to find a place to store it. Khalid must have known the plot was "intended to cause death and destruction, if he did not know he was wilfully blind," said Michaelson. But defence lawyer Russell Silverstein says two of Khalid's co-accused were the masterminds of the plot and that his client was "unaware of their true purpose" and the intended targets. He also said his client never intended to seriously hurt or kill anyone. "These men...are consciously misleading Mr. Khalid as a means of getting him to do their bidding, without telling him what's going on," said Silverstein, adding there was a "campaign of disinformation, obfuscation and hiding of the truth." If, as the Crown alleges, Khalid was to be tasked with building the bombs, why weren't any bomb-making videos, Internet materials or manuals found on him, asked Silverstein. According to an agreed statement of facts, Khalid was arrested during a sting operation while unloading a delivery truck filled with what he believed were three tonnes of ammonium nitrate. He was off-loading it into a storage facility that he and a co-accused had rented. Khalid was among 14 adults and four youths charged in the summer of 2006 with belonging to a homegrown terror cell. Since then charges have been stayed against seven of the accused and one youth has been convicted. The others await trial. A publication ban prohibits identifying the co-accused. Posted by: ryuge 2009-06-27 |
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