Terror plot ring leader in Canada goes on trial
By IANSTuesday, April 13, 2010
TORONTO - The ring leader of a terror plot, which could have been Canada’s 9/11, has gone on trial here along with two accomplices.
The plot was unearthed in June 2006 with the arrest of 18 Muslim men from Toronto area.
The plotters had planned to storm and blow up Canada’s parliament in Ottawa, take leaders hostage and behead the prime minister.
They had also planned to drive explosive-laden trucks into the offices of the Canadian spy agency, the Toronto Stock Exchange and a military base here.
Aiming to take revenge for Canada’s participation in the Afghan mission, the plotters had undergone training in a winter camp far away from Toronto in December 2005. But the plot was uncovered with the help of a mole who was paid more than $4 million by police.
One of the main leaders of the plot, Zakaria Amara, 24, was jailed for life in February. Others have been given light sentences and let off. Seven have charges stayed against them.
The plot ring leader Fahim Ahmad, 25, Steven Chand, 25, and Asad Ansari, 29, went on trial Monday, with the prosecution charging them with diabolic plans to cripple Canada.
“This trial is about a man named Fahim Ahmad, who the Crown (prosecution) alleges led the terrorist group and about some of the men who helped him,” prosecution lawyer Iona Jaffe told the jury.
Pointing to the ring leader’s conversations with the mole used by police to unearth the plot, the prosecution said: “Fahim Ahmad began to talk about his plans to strike specific Canadian targets: Parliament, electrical grids, nuclear stations. He wanted to cripple Canadian infrastructure.”
Appearing as a witness for the prosecution, the mole Mubin Shaikh, who befriended the ring leader at a banquet hall in November 2005, told the jury that the plot mastermind wanted to destroy Canada’s military and nuclear targets.
“It was clear to me that Fahim was definitely the leader of the group,” the mole said.
When the terror plot was unearthed in June 2006, some Muslim religious places were vandalised in backlash. Canada is home to about one million Muslim.
