A member of the “Toronto 18″ found guilty of participating in homegrown terror plot

Canadian guilty of planning homegrown terror plot

BRAMPTON, Ontario — A member of a homegrown terrorist group pleaded guilty Friday to participating in a plot to set off truck bombs in front of Canada’s main stock exchange and two government buildings.

Jahmaal James entered the plea Friday in an Ontario courtroom. James and 17 others were arrested and charged with terrorism offenses in 2006. The group came to be known as the Toronto 18.

The group’s members were charged with plotting to set off bombs outside Toronto’s Stock Exchange, a building housing Canada’s spy agency and a military base. The goal was to scare Canada into removing its troops from Afghanistan.

Having already served more than three-and-a-half years in pretrial custody, James was sentenced Friday to one more day.

“This was a very hard, arduous and difficult time for him but I think now he can look forward to sort of doing things differently,” his lawyer Donald McLeod said outside court.

According to court documents, the Muslim convert traveled from Toronto to Pakistan to obtain paramilitary training in November 2005 but he fell seriously ill and the plan to carry out the training was disrupted.

“The (prosecution) does not allege that James actually received paramilitary training,” prosecutor James Wakely said.

According to the statement, James became “disgruntled by the reckless manner” in which the Toronto terror group was being led.

The court heard he severed ties with the group before his arrest on June 2, 2006.

“He still embraces the religion, but he realizes he may have aligned himself with a portion that was not really to his liking and that’s what he disengaged from,” McLeod said.

Last month, the mastermind behind the plot, Zakaria Amara, 24, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty.

The Jordanian-born Canadian citizen received Canada’s first life sentence for a terrorism offense, and the maximum sentence under Canada’s anti-terrorism laws.

As for the rest of the Toronto 18, one man has been convicted and six others, including James, have pleaded guilty.

Three others face trial and seven had their charges stayed, which means that the government won’t proceed with prosecutions.