statism watch

CBC News
August 20, 2008

Prosecutors are trying to shift the focus of their case against Momin Khawaja because they can’t tie him conclusively to the British bomb plot that led to terrorism charges against him, Khawaja’s defence lawyer argued Wednesday.

“It’s extremely unfair,” Lawrence Greenspon told Justice Douglas Rutherford, who is hearing the case in Ottawa without a jury.

Greenspon is asking Rutherford to quash terrorism charges against his client on grounds that the Crown hasn’t produced sufficient evidence of his involvement in a plan to bomb a nightclub, shopping centre and electric and gas facilities in Britain.

Greenspon wrapped up his arguments in support of the motion for dismissal Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors will begin their counter-arguments when the court resumes sitting next Tuesday.

The defence has admitted that Khawaja — an Ottawa software developer — took weapons-training at a camp in Pakistan in 2003, and that he developed a remote-control device dubbed the Hi-Fi Digimonster that could be used to detonate bombs.

But Greenspon insisted his client’s only aim was to join Islamic insurgents fighting western troops in Afghanistan and to use the device to trigger homemade bombs there.

Evidence gathered by British security service MI-5 has shown Khawaja visited Omar Khyam, the leader of the British bomb plot, in 2004 and discussed remote-control technology with him.

But Greenspon pointed out that the same bugged conversations were filled with musings by Khawaja about travelling back to Pakistan and eventually to the front lines in Afghanistan.

He said Khawaja wasn’t present when Khyam and his fellow British conspirators discussed striking targets in Britain and that they deliberately kept him in the dark about those plans.

“It’s crystal clear that what was discussed in Momin Khawaja’s presence had everything to do with going to Afghanistan to fight [and] nothing to do with bombs in downtown London,” Greenspon said.

Khawaja participated in ‘violent jihad,’ Crown says

Prosecutors have yet to respond in detail to the defence arguments, but Bill Boutzouvis, one of the Crown attorneys handling the case, dropped a possible hint of their strategy earlier in the trial.

He argued that the core of the case against Khawaja is that he participated in “violent jihad,” no matter where his activities took place or what his intended targets were.

Greenspon contends it would be unjust, at this late point, to shift the focus away from the allegations involving the London plot. Such a switch, he said, would mean that “they charged A and they went on to prove B.”

He said the prosecution wants “not only to change horses but go to a completely different animal” in the middle of the case.

Khawaja faces seven charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act, including a key allegation that he built the Digimonster.

He’s also accused of financing and facilitating terrorism, participating in terrorist training and meetings, and making a house owned by his family in Pakistan available for terrorist use.

Five of his alleged co-conspirators, including Khyam, were convicted last year in Britain of participating in the failed bomb plot and sentenced to life in prison.

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