Wednesday, December 23, 2009

NO ENTRAPMENT IN TORONTO 18 CASE

*** Posted as an FYI since some people still don't get it. To be fair, this only applies to the youth proceedings but the message applies broadly to the remaining accused also. MS ***

http://www.thestar.com/article/607827 (Published On Wed Mar 25 2009)

No entrapment, judge rules in terrorism case
Police mole vindicated as court clears actions with accused youth


After years of "trash talk" and criticism for infiltrating an alleged homegrown terror cell, police mole Mubin Shaikh said he felt vindicated after a judge yesterday ruled that he acted appropriately and did not entrap one of the accused youths.

"My life has revolved around this point of entrapment and a lot of people have come out to say a lot of bad things about me," said Shaikh, referring to comments that have surfaced online in the Muslim community and within mosques.

"I knew right from the beginning that I was doing the right thing. ... I didn't put my neck out for the community to trash me," Shaikh said outside the courthouse, adding he "put up with a lot of trash talk."

The 33-year-old man said he was pleased the judge noted in his ruling that he believed Shaikh was motivated by his "moral and religious convictions."

When delivering his decision in a Brampton court, Superior Court Justice John Sproat did not read his 53-page ruling, but did state, "There has not been any entrapment and there has not been any abuse of process."

Shaikh's status at a terrorist training camp in December 2005 came under unusual scrutiny, given the unprecedented nature of this landmark case involving 14 men and four youths. The suspects, known as the Toronto 18, were charged in 2006 with belonging to a cell plotting to detonate truck bombs.

To date, four adults and three youths have had their charges stayed. The remaining youth, who is now 21, was found guilty of terrorism-related offences in September, but his lawyers brought forth a motion alleging he was lured into the group by Shaikh and should have the charge stayed.

In his ruling, Sproat said the winter camp had already been planned before Shaikh infiltrated the group and that the youth was invited by the alleged ringleaders.

"The camp would have been much the same had Shaikh not attended," wrote Sproat. "The information and indoctrination presented to (the accused) was not influenced or affected by any state action."

Sproat also noted Shaikh had limited contact with the teen after the camp, which was when his involvement intensified by shoplifting for the group and attending a second camp.

Defence counsel Mitchell Chernovsky and Faisal Mirza had argued that by taking on the role of a trainer, encouraging their client to perform better and training him in the use of a firearm, Shaikh was teaching the teen how to be a criminal.

They portrayed their client at the time as an impressionable 17-year-old convert to Islam desperate for acceptance and religious guidance.

But Sproat ruled the teen's age was "not much of an impediment to understanding the simple truth that a handgun was being fired, military-style exercises were being conducted and (the alleged ringleader) was exhorting the attendees to kick off a battle in which they would kill and perhaps be killed."

Crown prosecutors John Neander and Marco Mendicino argued that at the time of the camp, Shaikh was working as a confidential informer for the RCMP and only became an agent in February 2006.

They also portrayed Shaikh as someone who tried to moderate the tone of the camp and encouraged the teen to seek appropriate religious guidance.

Lawyers are due to return to court on April 7 to argue whether the teen should be sentenced as an adult or youth. If sentenced as an adult, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Ten adults have yet to stand trial and Shaikh is expected to be the Crown's main witness.

*** The youth was sentenced to basically, time served and was released thereafter. SIX await trial now (four plead guilty). MS ***