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"Toronto 18" terrorists: Arrest/court/aftermath

geo said:
I am responsible for my own actions and will/would be held responsibel for anything I ahve said and/or done

Time that these young men are taught the 1st (and most painful) lesson in responsibility.

Watch the fingers as they close the cell doors !

I'm not saying that there aren't people who take responsibility for themselves, what I'm saying is that there is nothing in the legal system that genuinely makes people have to take responsibility for their actions.  The military is a bit different, albeit it appears to be sliding down the same rabbit hole. 
However, this lack-of-justice tangent is becoming a touch hijack-y.  My apologies. 
 
This from the Canadian Press, shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.:
A lawyer for a Canadian man accused in a terrorist bomb plot says his client has pleaded guilty.

Saad Khalid is the first to plead guilty since the 2006 arrest of the "Toronto 18," a group prosecutors accuse of planning to truck-bomb nuclear power plants and a building housing Canada's spy service. The case made headlines and heightened fears in a country where many people thought they were relatively immune from terrorist strikes.

Lawyer Russell Silverstein says Khalid entered the guilty plea on Monday, and the judge banned publication of the plea until late Tuesday.

One other man in the group has been found guilty. Seven of those arrested have had their charges either withdrawn or stayed.

The trials of the other nine, including the alleged ringleaders, have not started.
 
....after being convicted and sentenced to time served, courtesy of the Canadian Press:
A man convicted of terrorist offences following the high-profile takedown of a homegrown terror cell bent on wreaking havoc in Canada was sentenced Friday to 2 1/2 years in prison and walked free just hours later based on time already served.

The man, who cannot be named, was the first member of the so-called Toronto 18 found guilty in the plot, though his lawyer said his role was minimal at best.

"He's somebody who's essentially found guilty of shoplifting, somebody who went to a second (training) camp that was essentially benign," Mitchell Chernovsky said outside the court.

"He's somebody who's young, has no prior record, has a positive pre-sentence report.

"Maximum sentence for the offence is only 10 years."

The man was released from jail and was back home Friday after being sentenced. The release was based on credit for time served in custody before trial ....
 
And people wonder why Homeland Security wants to treat us like Mexico ::). The Star Chamber and the real world will have a violent meeting someday, then the utopian left wingers will wonder how it came to this.

Fucking revolving door justice.
 
recceguy said:
Fucking revolving door justice legal system.

That other word hasn't existed for quite some time. 
But we get the society that we deserve.  Until people want to pull their collective heads out of their collective arses and start screaming at their elected officials to do something, we are giving away the farm.  And for that to happen, we need a body count.  Nothing else will do for the sheeple. 
I wonder if the Romans ignored blatant warning signs like this towards the end?
 
Reviving necrothread with the latest.

This from the Canadian Press:
One of the ringleaders of the so-called Toronto 18 terror group has pleaded guilty in the middle of his trial.

Fahim Ahmad, 25, was being tried along with Steven Chand and Asad Ansari on terrorism charges in the last of the trials associated with the group.

Justice Fletcher Dawson told the jury Monday that Ahmad pleaded guilty.

"You look out here this morning, members of the jury, you'll see Mr. Ahmad is no longer with us," said Dawson.

"Mr. Ahmad last week decided to change his plea to guilty."

Ahmad's plea has "no impact on the guilt or innocence of the two men who remain on trial," Dawson instructed the jury.

The jury heard earlier in the trial that Ahmad was the leader of a terror cell and held two training camps to assess his recruits' suitability.

Court was told Ahmad planned to attack Parliament, electrical grids and nuclear stations ....
 
.... "Final two ‘Toronto 18′ terror accused found guilty":
The final two accused in the “Toronto 18″ terrorism case have been found guilty by a Superior Court jury.

Asad Ansari, 25, and Steven Chand, 29, were on trial for participating in a terror cell that plotted to storm Parliament and detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.

Chand was also found guilty of counseling the commission of fraud for the group’s benefit.

Sentencing discussions are set to take place tomorrow.
 
Convicted Toronto 18 ringleader to be sentenced Monday
Article Link
Postmedia News October 24, 2010

BRAMPTON, Ont. — On Monday, an Ontario judge will hand down the sentence for the convicted ringleader of the Toronto 18 terrorist group.

Fahim Ahmad pleaded guilty in May to participating in a terrorist group, importing firearms and instructing others to carry out activities for the benefit of a terrorist group. Before the Toronto 18 cell was dismantled in 2006, the group had plotted to storm Parliament and detonate powerful truck bombs at key targets in and around Toronto.

Evidence has shown that Ahmad arranged terrorist training camps, created propaganda videos and helped the group acquire weapons.

Last month, in a rambling, six-page letter to the court, Ahmad said he had fallen into a "fantasy world" when he plotted to devastate Canadian infrastructure with a series of attacks.

Ahmad also placed the blame on a host of external sources, from his parents, to religious leaders, to anonymous people he met online.

Ahmad, who has been in custody since June 2006, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
More on link
 
So, out in 7 with time served and good behavior?
 
A member of the so-called Toronto 18, who tried to raise funds for an al-Qaeda-inspired homegrown cell, rapped about the “predicaments of my present times” before being sentenced in a Brampton court Friday to 10 years.

Steven Chand, 29, who was a trainer at a camp to weed out potential recruits and who helped scout a safehouse, appeared relaxed in the prisoner’s box as Justice Fletcher Dawson delivered his ruling.

The Scarborough man, who has been behind bars since his arrest in June 2006, was given slightly more than two-for-one credit of time served, which means he will serve an additional seven months and 10 days.

As part of his sentence, Chand was given three years of probation, a lifetime weapons prohibition and ordered to submit a DNA sample.

He faced a maximum term of life imprisonment for the fraud charge and up to 10 years for participating in the terror cell – with sentences to run consecutively – but the Crown and defence had agreed, early in the process, that an eight-year sentence would be sufficient.

However, Dawson noted that such a sentence was “inadequate” and “would be contrary to the public interest.”

“Mr. Chand was ideologically committed to the cause… He was serious,” said Dawson, who also recommended Chand seek de-radicalization counseling ....
More here.
 
From the Canadian Press via therecord.com, shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act.
Two members of the so-called Toronto 18 terrorist group had their sentences dramatically increased Friday, while an appeal of the ringleader’s life sentence was denied.

Decisions in the cases of Zakaria Amara, Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya were among six terrorism-related judgments released Friday by the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

The court came down heavily on the Toronto 18 members, who all pleaded guilty and were convicted in a plot to cause mass carnage by setting off truck bombs in Toronto and outside a military base.

Earlier this year Amara was the first person given the maximum penalty under Canada’s anti-terror laws — a life sentence with no parole eligibility for 10 years. He appealed that sentence, but the court dismissed it.

The Appeal Court also increased the sentences of two other Toronto 18 members, who participated in Amara’s bomb plot. The Crown had appealed their sentences, arguing they were too lenient.

The Appeal Court agreed and Saad Khalid saw his sentence increased to 20 years from 14 years. Taking a seven-year credit for pre-sentence custody into account Khalid will have to serve 13 more years. He must serve 6 ½ years before he is eligible for parole.

Saad Gaya saw his sentence increased to 18 years from 12 years. Taking credit for pre-sentence custody into account, Gaya must serve 10 ½ more years instead of 4 ½. He will be eligible for parole in a little more than five years.

The three young men were among 18 people arrested in the summer of 2006 in what came to be known as the Toronto 18 terrorist group. Eleven of them were ultimately convicted.

- edited to add following -
From news releases here and here, issued by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada:
The Ontario Court of Appeal today released decisions on sentence appeals for three members of a Toronto group convicted of terrorism-related offences.

In the case of Saad Khalid, 24, the Court allowed the Crown’s appeal and increased his sentence to 20 years imprisonment. On September 3, 2009, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm or death for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group contrary to s. 83.2 of the Criminal Code.

In the case of Saad Gaya, 23, the Court allowed the Crown’s appeal and increased his sentence to 18 years imprisonment. On January 18, 2010, he was sentenced to 12 years after pleading guilty to one count of intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm or death for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with terrorist group, contrary to s. 83.2 of the Criminal Code.

In the case of Zakaria Amara, 25, the Court dismissed the defence appeal. He will continue to serve his original sentence of life imprisonment imposed by the Ontario Superior Court on January 18, 2010, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of terrorism-related offences under sections 81(1)(a) and 83.18(1) of the Criminal Code.

The Court of Appeal stated that terrorism is a crime like no other. The Court has indicated that individuals who threaten our peaceful and democratic society by plotting to kill innocent citizens for ideological causes will receive sentences that reflect the gravity of their crimes ....
The Ontario Court of Appeal today released its decision to increase Mohammad Momin Khawaja’s sentence to life imprisonment for his role in a terrorist bomb plot.

The Court concluded that the trial judge erred by imposing a 10.5 year sentence in addition to the four and a half years served in pre-trial custody. The Public Prosecution Service of Canada launched its appeal after reviewing the sentencing decision. Maximum penalties for the offences range from 10 years to life imprisonment. The decision to appeal was guided by policy in the FPS Deskbook, which is a public document.

On October 29, 2008, Momin Khawaja was found guilty of several Criminal Code and terrorism-related offences including the development of a remote bomb detonating device.

The Court of Appeal today recognized that terrorism is a global threat to peace and security, and that innocent lives around the world must be protected from terrorists, wherever they are based. The Court clearly stated that Canada is not a safe haven for would-be terrorists ....
 
This needs to be posted in it's entirety here, in addition to the Sandbox thread were comments are not encouraged,.....this deserves comment.

Terrorism rulings an early Christmas present from our justice system
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD Saturday's Globe and Mail Friday, Dec. 17, 2010
Article Link

As someone smarter than me remarked upon reading the slew of newly released terrorism judgments from the Ontario Court of Appeal, this young country just did a whole lot of growing up.

In a series of six linked decisions, the highest court in the province dramatically upped the sentences for three convicted Canadian terrorists (to life in prison, in the case of Ottawa’s Momin Khawaja) and urged judges to ditch their “business as usual” approach with terrorists.

More than that, the decisions in total reflect a hardnosed realpolitik remarkable in a country where sentences rarely match the judicial thunder that often precedes them.

“Terrorism, in our view, is in a special category of crime and must be treated as such,” Justices David Doherty, Michael Moldaver and Eleanore Cronk wrote in the Khawaja case.

With terrorism offences, they said, “sentences exceeding 20 years, up to and including life imprisonment, should not be viewed as exceptional.

“That may not be the traditional approach to sentencing,” the court said, “but it is the approach we believe must be taken to repudiate and deter terrorism and denounce it for the insidious crime it is.”

The judges noted that though Canada’s “sentencing and correctional philosophy also places a premium on the notion of individual dignity and it accepts redemption and rehabilitation as desired and achievable goals,” these hallmarks of the justice system “may be seen by those who reject democracy and individual freedom as signs of weakness.

“Terrorists, in particular, may view Canada as an attractive place from which to pursue their heinous activities.

“And it is up to the courts to shut the door on that way of thinking, swiftly and surely.”

The panel found that in sentencing Mr. Khawaja, the first person tried in Ontario on terrorism charges, the trial judge had imposed a “manifestly unfit” sentence of 10 and a half years by failing to consider three key factors – the special danger terrorism poses to Canadian society; the threat Mr. Khawaja himself poses and “the need for the sentence imposed to send a clear message to would-be terrorists that Canada is not a safe haven ...”

The judges’ message to the lower courts was unmistakable: There is a “need to let would-be terrorists know that they will pay a heavy price if they choose to pursue their deadly activities in Canada.”

In other words, the court has said baldly that the threat is real; that what is threatened isn’t mere property or even lives, but fundamental Canadian values, and that if would-be terrorists thought that Canadians could be played as suckers who wouldn’t rise to defend those values, they ought to reconsider.

Those values – “the pursuit of truth, participation in the community and individual self-fulfillment” – are the very principles that underpin the right to freedom of expression, the court said. Any Canadian can say anything he or she wants so long as it advances one or more of those ideals.

But “counselling someone to engage in conduct that would cause death or serious bodily harm hardly encourages” any of those things, the court said. It dismissed a challenge to the anti-terrorism legislation on the grounds that it could have a “chilling effect” upon those who may share terrorists’ beliefs but stop short of violence.

If authorities overstep their bounds and “sweep within their investigative net persons who had done nothing more than bear a religious, cultural or racial resemblance to persons stereotyped as terrorists,” it would be improper and unconstitutional.

But, the court said, there’s no evidence of that.

“There are many potential explanations for why people might feel a chilling effect when it comes to expressing extremist Islamic views,” the judges wrote. “Perhaps, most obviously, there is the reality of the world we live in. Terrorism and the fear and uncertainty terrorism creates are facts of life.

“Fear can generate many things, including suspicion based on ignorance and stereotyping.

“Many, but by no means all, of the major terrorist attacks in the last 10 years have been perpetrated by radical Islamic groups fuelled by a potent mix of religious and political fanaticism.

“It is hardly surprising,” the judges said, “that in the public mind, terrorism is associated with the religious and political views of radical Islamists.”

While in no way condoning such “profiling or stereotyping,” the court noted, “Individuals who associate themselves through their conduct or statements with the goals or activities of terrorist groups can expect to be investigated by the police even though it may turn out that those persons have not engaged in any ‘terrorist activity.’ ”

Mr. Khawaja’s lawyers had argued that the goal that motivated him to develop a detonator he called the “Hi-Fi Digimonster” and to enthusiastically embrace violent jihad was “to kill Western soldiers in Afghanistan and local troops that support them, not innocent civilians” and that his punishment should be mitigated accordingly.

The judges smacked that argument away. Mr. Khawaja’s “own writings belie” it, they said. “Beyond that, we reject outright the notion that the lives of soldiers serving in Afghanistan should be somehow treated as ‘less worthy’ of protection when fashioning sentences…”

They got every damn thing right: Merry Christmas Canada, from the Ontario Court of Appeal.
More on link
 
PuckChaser said:
The justice system finally got it right!

Now we just have to get them to do the same with our home grown, hammer head run of the mill criminals................ ::)
 
From Postmedia News:
The country's top court has upheld the federal government's right to withhold evidence for national security reasons regarding the Toronto 18 terrorism plot, which was broken up in June 2006.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada said Thursday that the provisions adopted by the government were constitutional, but it also concluded that suspects could be released whenever the evidence against them is too sensitive to be presented in a trial.

"Sometimes the only way to avoid an '(unfair) trial is to have no trial at all," members of the Supreme Court of Canada wrote in their ruling.

"As we have explained . . . the criminal court trial judge possesses the means to safeguard the accused's fair trial rights." ....

Supreme Court of Canada decision here.
 
From CBC.ca
Shareef Abdelhaleem, a member of the so-called Toronto 18 who was convicted of participating in a bomb plot, was sentenced Friday to life in prison.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Fletcher Dawson said Abdelhaleem didn't show remorse for his role in a plan to set off three one-tonne fertilizer bombs, including two in downtown Toronto.

Abdelhaleem, 35, was found guilty in February 2010 of participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion.

He and 17 others, who came to be known in the media as the Toronto 18, were arrested in 2006 and charged with terrorism offences.

Seven had their charges dropped or stayed, seven pleaded guilty and four were convicted ....
 
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