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Accused terrorist conspirator Khurram Sher will enter the Ottawa courthouse on Tuesday almost four years to the day since his arrest in a dramatic police takedown in London, Ont.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland will have decided whether the 31-year-old pathologist will leave his courtroom a free man or in handcuffs convicted of a terrorist offence.
Sher was one of three young Muslim men arrested and charged with terrorism-related activity on Aug. 26, 2010 after a massive RCMP anti-terrorism investigation dubbed Project Samossa.
Ottawa hospital imaging specialist Misbahuddin Ahmed, 30, was found guilty last month of two out of three offences and is awaiting sentencing.
Sher pleaded not guilty to one charge of conspiring to facilitate a terrorist activity. His trial, before the judge alone, ended in April.
Justice Hackland decided to delay delivering his verdict until after the Ahmed trial.
Following his arrest, it emerged that Montreal-born Sher had attempted to spoof his way onto the Canadian Idol show by singing a strained version of Avril Lavigne’s song “Complicated” and attempting to perform the Michael Jackson-patented Moonwalk.
He told Idol producers in a feigned Pakistani accent that he was an immigrant from Pakistan when in fact he is a high-achieving graduate from McGill University’s medical school.
But according to Crown prosecutor Jason Wakely, Sher the fun-loving jokester was part of a conspiracy that had grown into an “unmistakable grave danger – a red alert.”
Although the RCMP had been recording the conversations of the two alleged co-conspirators and tailing them for at least six months, Sher had not been on the Mounties’ radar until July 20, 2010 when he stopped for dinner at Ahmed’s on his way from Montreal to London where he was about to begin a $365,000-a-year job as a hospital pathologist.
The bulk of the Crown case against Sher was based on his contributions to that dinner conversation, which was being secretly recorded by sound probes the RCMP had planted in the apartment.
In making his case, Wakely rejected the defence explanation that Sher was an innocent caught unwittingly in a net of terrorist intrigue and maintained he was a willing participant who had contributed money to the terrorist cause.
When he arrived in London, the RCMP had bugged his phone and house but on hundreds of subsequent intercepts they found no further evidence of either terrorist activity or of any contact with his alleged co-conspirators.
Sher admitted contributing $400 to a fund being gathered by his friend Ahmed but said it was intended for charitable use in Kurdistan — an explanation also given by Ahmed at his trial.
To emphasize the point, defence lawyer Michael Edelson produced a copy of one of Sher’s income tax returns that showed he was a generous contributor to numerous legitimate charities.
Sher testified that although Ahmed was a longtime friend from Montreal, he knew him only as a sports-loving guy who enjoyed soccer and hockey.
He had not met the second, allegedly radicalized co-conspirator, until the night of the July dinner – a claim that the Crown did not dispute.
But in his cross-examination, Wakely said it would have been natural for Sher to quiz Ahmed about his involvement with the third man and ask, “What’s wrong with you?”
“You don’t let a friend slip into reprehensible behaviour without confronting him about it,” said Wakely. “If not that night, then the day after, or the day after that. That conversation never happened.”
But Edelson told the judge that Ahmed and the third man, whose name is currently protected by a publication ban, had attempted to groom Sher but he hadn’t taken them seriously.
“He had no clue that his friend had gone to the dark side,” he said.
Before a weekend camping retreat and target practice event in Gatineau Park, one of the alleged co-conspirators recorded by wiretap had said they shouldn’t invite any “Tom, Dick or Harry” — “only a few select specific type of people,” said the lawyer.
“There is no evidence to suggest that Dr. Sher would not have been invited if he had shared their ideology,” he said. “He was not invited. He is not part of the group. He is in the Tom, Dick and Harry category.”
Edelson spent much of the month-long trial pointing to errors in the RCMP’s transcript of the dinner conversation and attacking the lack of qualification of the translators and transcribers.
Despite being replete with errors, said Edelson, there was nothing in the transcript to suggest that Sher’s alleged co-conspirators shared any plans with him.
If they had wanted him to be part of any terrorist group, it would have been normal for them to tell him from the beginning of the conversation, he added.
“This is how I would have expected the whole discussion to start at dinner,” said Edelson: ” ‘Well, Khurram, here’s what we’re doing, here’s what we’re planning. We would like you to join us. We want your help.’ They would cut to the chase. But that kind of discussion never takes place.”
ccobb@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/chrisicobb
查看原文...
Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland will have decided whether the 31-year-old pathologist will leave his courtroom a free man or in handcuffs convicted of a terrorist offence.
Sher was one of three young Muslim men arrested and charged with terrorism-related activity on Aug. 26, 2010 after a massive RCMP anti-terrorism investigation dubbed Project Samossa.
Ottawa hospital imaging specialist Misbahuddin Ahmed, 30, was found guilty last month of two out of three offences and is awaiting sentencing.
Sher pleaded not guilty to one charge of conspiring to facilitate a terrorist activity. His trial, before the judge alone, ended in April.
Justice Hackland decided to delay delivering his verdict until after the Ahmed trial.
Following his arrest, it emerged that Montreal-born Sher had attempted to spoof his way onto the Canadian Idol show by singing a strained version of Avril Lavigne’s song “Complicated” and attempting to perform the Michael Jackson-patented Moonwalk.
He told Idol producers in a feigned Pakistani accent that he was an immigrant from Pakistan when in fact he is a high-achieving graduate from McGill University’s medical school.
But according to Crown prosecutor Jason Wakely, Sher the fun-loving jokester was part of a conspiracy that had grown into an “unmistakable grave danger – a red alert.”
Although the RCMP had been recording the conversations of the two alleged co-conspirators and tailing them for at least six months, Sher had not been on the Mounties’ radar until July 20, 2010 when he stopped for dinner at Ahmed’s on his way from Montreal to London where he was about to begin a $365,000-a-year job as a hospital pathologist.
The bulk of the Crown case against Sher was based on his contributions to that dinner conversation, which was being secretly recorded by sound probes the RCMP had planted in the apartment.
In making his case, Wakely rejected the defence explanation that Sher was an innocent caught unwittingly in a net of terrorist intrigue and maintained he was a willing participant who had contributed money to the terrorist cause.
When he arrived in London, the RCMP had bugged his phone and house but on hundreds of subsequent intercepts they found no further evidence of either terrorist activity or of any contact with his alleged co-conspirators.
Sher admitted contributing $400 to a fund being gathered by his friend Ahmed but said it was intended for charitable use in Kurdistan — an explanation also given by Ahmed at his trial.
To emphasize the point, defence lawyer Michael Edelson produced a copy of one of Sher’s income tax returns that showed he was a generous contributor to numerous legitimate charities.
Sher testified that although Ahmed was a longtime friend from Montreal, he knew him only as a sports-loving guy who enjoyed soccer and hockey.
He had not met the second, allegedly radicalized co-conspirator, until the night of the July dinner – a claim that the Crown did not dispute.
But in his cross-examination, Wakely said it would have been natural for Sher to quiz Ahmed about his involvement with the third man and ask, “What’s wrong with you?”
“You don’t let a friend slip into reprehensible behaviour without confronting him about it,” said Wakely. “If not that night, then the day after, or the day after that. That conversation never happened.”
But Edelson told the judge that Ahmed and the third man, whose name is currently protected by a publication ban, had attempted to groom Sher but he hadn’t taken them seriously.
“He had no clue that his friend had gone to the dark side,” he said.
Before a weekend camping retreat and target practice event in Gatineau Park, one of the alleged co-conspirators recorded by wiretap had said they shouldn’t invite any “Tom, Dick or Harry” — “only a few select specific type of people,” said the lawyer.
“There is no evidence to suggest that Dr. Sher would not have been invited if he had shared their ideology,” he said. “He was not invited. He is not part of the group. He is in the Tom, Dick and Harry category.”
Edelson spent much of the month-long trial pointing to errors in the RCMP’s transcript of the dinner conversation and attacking the lack of qualification of the translators and transcribers.
Despite being replete with errors, said Edelson, there was nothing in the transcript to suggest that Sher’s alleged co-conspirators shared any plans with him.
If they had wanted him to be part of any terrorist group, it would have been normal for them to tell him from the beginning of the conversation, he added.
“This is how I would have expected the whole discussion to start at dinner,” said Edelson: ” ‘Well, Khurram, here’s what we’re doing, here’s what we’re planning. We would like you to join us. We want your help.’ They would cut to the chase. But that kind of discussion never takes place.”
ccobb@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/chrisicobb
查看原文...
