BRAMPTON, Ont. - A university student who described an alleged terrorist training camp as purely recreational came under fire Tuesday from the Crown lawyer who had called him to testify.
John Neander, who is prosecuting the first terrorism-related trial arising out of the arrest of 18 people in the Toronto area two summers ago, accused witness Shal Syed of giving inconsistent evidence.
In his evidence, Syed testified that members of the alleged conspiracy, including the young accused, had talked about going abroad for jihad.
However, he took pains to point out that jihad -- "contrary to popular perception'' -- doesn't relate to terrorism, but rather to purification of the soul or perhaps "lawful resistance.''
But Neander noted that Syed had told police in June 2006 that the alleged terrorist leader also talked about getting weapons and military training in relation to the jihad.
"Can't you acknowledge the plain meaning of your words?'' Neander asked in a testy exchange.
"I can't acknowledge your interpretation,'' Syed shot back.
It's the second time the prosecution has attacked one of its own witnesses.
Last week, Neander accused RCMP informant Mubin Shaikh, on whom much of the case against the 11 people still facing charges rests, of changing some of his evidence to protect the man on trial.
The accused, now 20, cannot be named because he was 17 at the time of his alleged offences.
On Tuesday, Syed told Ontario Superior Court Justice John Sproat that he knew several of the accused from high school in east end Toronto.
But he only met the leader of the alleged conspiracy, who lived down the street, about two weeks before the camp in May 2006 at the Rockwood Conservation Area just east of Guelph, Ont.
Police allege it was the second camp organized by the conspirators to prepare for terrorist attacks that were to include beheading politicians and truck bombings in Toronto and Ottawa.
Syed, 21, a student at the University of Toronto who spent 2 1/2 years in the military reserves, testified he saw nothing to suggest terrorist training was going on.
A video taken by one participant and played for court shows campers, including the young accused, goofing around in the water and on hikes.
However, it also shows them in fatigues, with faces covered, sitting in a tent in a scene Syed said was designed to look like a "resistance video seen on the Internet.''
The alleged leader "wanted to imitate a covert operation'' with a night-time hike that was like the X-Box game, "Ghost Recon,'' and participants hid behind trees and bushes, Syed told the court.
Campers also heard the leader discuss the situation of Muslims around the world as "dire'' and the U.S.-led war against Iraq as an "unjust operation.''
Muslims in privileged countries such as Canada were obliged to help out, Syed cited the leader as saying.
Syed said he approached police because the brother-in-law of the alleged leader came to his house hours after the arrests to ask him to conceal tapes.
