Ottawa Man Convicted On Terrorism Charges Relating To Bomb Device
Posted October 29, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ottawa software developer Momin Khawaja has been found guilty of several counts under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Khawaja was convicted Wednesday on five charges of financing and facilitating terrorism.
He was also found guilty of two Criminal Code offences related to building a remote-control device, known as the Hi-Fi Digimonster, intended to trigger bomb blasts.
But Justice Douglas Rutherford concluded he was not guilty of terrorism offences with regard to the Digimonster, saying there was not sufficient proof Khawaja knew it was to be used in fertilizer-powered attacks in London.
The explosions were planned — but never carried out — by Islamic extremists in Britain.
Khawaja, 29, pleaded not guilty to the charges in Ontario Superior Court and was tried without a jury.
Five associates, including bomb-plot ringleader Omar Khyam, were sentenced to prison last year after being convicted in London.
“Momin Khawaja was aware of the group’s purposes, and whether he considered them terrorism or not, he assisted the group in many ways in the pursuit of its terrorist objective,” Rutherford wrote in his judgment.
“It matters not whether any terrorist activity was actually carried out.”
But Rutherford said the Crown did not prove Khawaja knew of the plans Khyam and others had for terrorist explosions in the greater London area or elsewhere in the U.K. using the 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer they had acquired, and presumably the remote detonating devices Khawaja agreed to make.
“The evidence does not lead inescapably, or beyond a reasonable doubt, to the conclusion that Momin Khawaja was privy to the fertilizer bomb plot or its existence.”
Lawrence Greenspon, Khawaja’s lawyer, called the ruling a victory.
“The prosecution fundamentally was directed at his involvement in the London bombing. The judge has acquitted him on that.”
Crown attorney Bill Boutzouvis was philosophical about the verdict. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, isn’t it?”
Greenspon said the charges on which his client was convicted were “far less serious.”
Khawaja, to be sentenced Nov. 18, could still face life in prison.
His case was considered the first major test of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The law came in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington — a Canadian response to the threat of Islamic extremism.
The act was also used two years ago to charge 18 individuals in an alleged conspiracy to bomb targets in Toronto. But most of those cases are still before the courts.
Over the summer, Crown prosecutors painted Khawaja as a devoted jihadist in league with extremists determined to sow havoc among innocent British city-dwellers.
Greenspon didn’t deny Khawaja’s fanaticism, but characterized him as an angry young Muslim who wanted to join insurgents on the battlefields of Afghanistan — not blow up targets in London.
During closing arguments last month, Greenspon asked Rutherford to dismiss all charges but one — possession of the Digimonster trigger.
The RCMP found the Digimonster in a raid on the Khawaja family home in suburban east Ottawa along with enough components to suggest Khawaja may have been planning to build more of the electronic gizmos.
Surveillance by British authorities indicated that Khawaja visited people involved in the U.K. plot and discussed remote-control technology with them.
Greenspon conceded that in addition to possessing the trigger, Khawaja trained at a camp in Pakistan, gave money to an Ottawa woman for use abroad, and spoke with various individuals in London.
But he said it was all intended to further Khawaja’s goals of helping and fighting alongside militants in Afghanistan.
Further, Greenspon told the judge there is no evidence his client had specific knowledge of the plot he is alleged to have helped plan. He contended Khyam and others deliberately withheld information about the bomb plot from Khawaja, discussing details of the scheme only in his absence.
The Crown called much of the evidence direct and compelling, citing electronic intercepts, e-mails and items seized at the family home.
