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Written by Colin Perkel, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 |
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BRAMPTON, Ont. - A terrifying terrorist plot to attack Canadian targets was an unrealistic "jihadi fantasy" that was deliberately hidden from a young man on trial for his role in the alleged conspiracy, an Ontario court heard Thursday.
In closing arguments, defence lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky said the Crown failed to prove the group it alleges was bent on wanton destruction was a real terrorist cell.
While the group's leader vowed to "cripple Canada" and recruited acolytes to execute his scheme, even the Crown's star witness testified the man was little more than a self-aggrandizing braggart.
"He lied about everyone and everything," Chernovsky told Superior Court Justice John Sproat.
"One wonders if he was even capable of telling the truth."
Even if the man did have a genuinely nefarious plan, his "complete ineptitude" precluded his carrying it out, the lawyer said.
"All of this is a fantasy, a delusion, with zero probability of ever being implemented."
In fact, the lawyer said, another of the leaders split from the group because he knew nothing would happen.
The accused, now 20, has pleaded not guilty to terrorism-related charges, including that he aided a terrorist group by shoplifting camping supplies and walkie-talkies.
He was one of 18 people arrested amid a frenzy of international publicity in the Toronto area two summers ago in what police alleged was a homegrown terrorist plot bent on havoc in Canada.
Charges against seven of them - including three other youths - have since been stayed or dropped.
Court has heard the accused - who was 17 at the time of his alleged offences - was an enthusiastic participant in camps north of Toronto in December 2005 and another near Guelph, Ont., in May 2006.
The Crown argues the camps - which included shooting a 9-mm handgun, marching, playing paintball games and listening to lectures - were intended as preparation for terrorist attacks, and to expose attendees to extremist ideology and criminal rhetoric.
However, the defence countered that several participants believed the camps were religious and recreational in nature, with tobogganing, snowball fights and horsing around.
Chernovsky pointed to evidence the leader went to "extreme lengths" to keep his recruits "on the down low" - in the dark - about his plans to "attack Canada" and to turn the accused into a suicide bomber.
Those plans are alleged to have included attacking Parliament Hill, beheading politicians, and truck-bombing targets such as nuclear power plants and RCMP headquarters, which he mistakenly believed were in Toronto.
Even the Crown's star witness testified the accused was unaware of the alleged plot.
Co-defence lawyer Faisal Mirza told court that the young man, a Hindu convert to Islam, was a "naive" teenager with no knowledge of the Muslim religion or geopolitical reality.
His association with other Muslims and his attendance at the local mosque was "integral" to his religious conversion and is hardly a sign of guilt, Mirza said.
Described as quiet and obliging, the youth was estranged from his family, and saw the group's leader as a mentor - a man who lied to his closest associates to promulgate a view of himself as "this great leader," the lawyer said.
"(The leader) had no honour, even among his own inner circle."
As a result, anything incriminating the man told others simply cannot be believed, Mirza said.
Neither the accused nor any of the adults still to be tried under Canada's fledgling anti-terrorism laws can be identified by court order.
The defence wraps up its closing arguments on Friday.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 07 August 2008 )
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