Captive in Canada

Four Implicated In Toronto Terror Plot Have Charges Stayed

Source: City News - 15-apr-08

They were accused of being involved in what could have been one of the worst terror attacks to ever hit this country. But now four men implicated in crimes that were never actually committed are going free.

The so-called Toronto Terror plot saw 18 suspects arrested between June and August of 2006, charged with planning to attack some high profile Canadian targets, possibly including the CN Tower, the Toronto Stock Exchange and the TTC.

And while the case against three of them had already fallen apart, another four are now off the hook, after the Crown stayed charges against them in a Brampton courtroom on Tuesday.

It means Qayyum Abdul Jamal, Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, Ibrahim Aboud and Yasim Mohamed will have the charges against them dropped and unless the Crown decides to reactivate them within a year - an unlikely move - they’ll be free.

It’s a huge relief to those involved, who always proclaimed their innocence.

Among them: Jamal (top left), the oldest of the accused, who had been painted as the ringleader of the terror gang. He spent 17 months behind bars - 13 of them in solitary confinement. “I’ll move on with my life,” he insists, before claiming bitterly, “Being in jail was not proper. I was tortured. I was abused based on my age.”

Three out of the four are on a peace bond for the next year, which keeps them under a curfew.

But while the lawyers for Canada have been reluctantly forced to admit they can’t make their case, those representing the now former accused are incensed that their clients were ever put into the system in the first place.

Rocco Galati represents Ghany. He calls the arrest a blatant instance of racial profiling. “He’ll be forever stigmatized by the charges, like, you know, regardless of whether they’re stayed or not,” he notes.

Those alleged to be involved in the plot all attended a camp north of Toronto before their arrests. Officials had claimed it was conducting training for terrorists. But those who went there counter it was just what  it seemed - a facility designed to “identify people of skill, physical and spiritual,” and not conduct any kind of nefarious activities.

“My client went to a winter camp for five days with some of his friends, and for that his life has been irrevocably changed into a Kafkaesque nightmare,” complains Raymond Motee, the lawyer for Aboud.

“As far as I’m concerned … there should be some form of inquiry as to why it was this gentleman spent such a period of time in custody and spent it in the fashion that he did,” demands Anser Farooq, Jamal’s advocate.

Eleven people still remain accused of plotting the terrible deeds, which allegedly included storming the Parliament Buildings, kidnapping MPs and even beheading the Prime Minister.

Thankfully, any such plan - if it existed - was discovered before it could happen and the legal proceedings of those involved have plodded slowly through the courts under veils of extreme secrecy ever since.

“I believe, and this is my own personal opinion, that … there’s been a political agenda,” charges Motee. “This is Canada’s way of showing that we’re fighting the war on terror.”
 
Galati agrees and gets even more contentious. “I think a lot of western prosecutions on alleged terrorism charges are simply horse and pony shows in furtherance of George Bush’s oil war and to sustain Canada’s commitment in Afghanistan.”

The trial for the remaining young offender will begin next month, while the rest of the suspects will likely get their day in court sometime next year.

Related: Abdul Qayyum Jamal • Ahmad Mustafa Ghany • Ibrahim Aboud • Yasin Mohamed

April 15th, 2008 News | no comments | Email it! |  Print This Post | 99 views