The al-Qaeda operatives of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US will score a moral victory if a Canadian accused of participating in a plot to bomb British targets in 2004 is convicted on the basis of mere guilt by association, the suspect’s lawyer said on Friday.
Lawrence Greenspon said at Momin Khawaja’s trial, which wrapped up on Friday, that Canadian anti-terrorism laws passed following the attacks on the US seven years ago must be applied in a fair and just way.
“But if the application of those new laws was permitted to take place in a manner which was contrary to any of the principles of fundamental justice, then those who orchestrated 9/11 will have achieved some measure of victory,” he told Justice Douglas Rutherford, who said on Friday that he would deliver his ruling on Oct. 29.
Khawaja is the first person to be tried under Canada’s anti-terrorism laws. A Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, he is accused of allegedly collaborating with British Muslims, also of Pakistani descent, in a thwarted plan to bomb British buildings and natural gas lines. He has pleaded not guilty to seven charges of financing and facilitating terrorism.
In Greenspon’s concluding arguments, he acknowledged an October 2003 e-mail from Khawaja to his then-fiancee, in which the Ottawa software developer expressed approval of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But the defense lawyer said that if Khawaja is found guilty simply for his views or the company he keeps “rather than by proof of actions and knowledge, then the impact of planes hitting the towers will be multiplied, as the principles which define our society will have also suffered crippling blows.”
Five alleged collaborators of the British bomb plot, including ringleader Omar Khyam, were convicted in London and sentenced last year to life behind bars.
Khawaja is charged with building a remote-control device dubbed the Hi-Fi Digimonster to trigger blasts in Britain.
Evidence gathered by British intelligence agency MI5 indicated Khawaja visited people involved in the plot and discussed remote-control technology with them.
Greenspon told the judge there is no evidence his client had specific knowledge of the British bomb plot, arguing instead that Khawaja was an angry young Muslim who wanted to join insurgents on the battlefields of Afghanistan.
Greenspon concedes Khawaja possessed the Digimonster, trained at a terrorist camp in Pakistan, gave money to an Ottawa woman for use abroad, and spoke with various individuals in London.
But he says all of this was to further Khawaja’s goals of assisting and fighting alongside militants in Afghanistan — not to attack civilians in Britain.
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