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.
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