A Canadian youth was found guilty on Thursday of participating in a major jihadist terror plot in Canada two years ago, federal prosecutors said.
The youth, currently aged 20, “was found guilty today ... of charges related to terrorist activity under the Criminal Code,” a statement from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said.
The young man — whose identity cannot be revealed because he was a minor at the time of his arrest — was part of a group of 18 Canadian Muslims arrested in mid-2006 in Toronto, accused of planning attacks in that city and in Ottawa.
The decision by Ontario Superior Court judge John Sproat was the first in the case and considered a major test for Canada’s new antiterrorism law, adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
Sproat’s ruling was also closely watched as a sign of the potential fates of the ten other suspects in the case, facing trials whose dates have not yet been set.
The group had allegedly planned to attack Canadian parliament and to take hostages, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to force Canada to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan.
Prosecutors said the group wanted to obtain three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used to make explosives.
But subsequent to the arrests, authorities dropped charges against seven of the suspects, and they were freed.
The charges rested on testimony of a police informer, Mubin Shaikh, who infiltrated the group. But the informant later declared in court that the defendant had no knowledge of the plot.
Canadian prosecutors said they would not comment further on the verdict because it was subject to appeal.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number