TORONTO - A 22-year-old man has become the first of the so-called Toronto 18 to enter a guilty plea in relation to a domestic terror plot.
In a surprise move, Saad Khalid pleaded guilty on Monday to charges of intending to cause an explosion relating to the plot targeting several Canadian targets.
His lawyer, Russell Silverstein, said his client pleaded guilty to participating in a terrorist organization with the intention of causing explosions likely to cause serious injury, death or damage.
A ban on reporting the guilty plea was lifted late Tuesday.
In explaining why his client pleaded guilty, Silverstein said "every accused in this criminal case has a difficult decision to make."
He said "sometimes pleading guilty is the best route to a just result."
Khalid is scheduled to attend a June 22 hearing before a judge in Brampton, Ont., who will decide the extent of his role in the plot.
Silverstein said he hopes to show that client's involvement was "at the lower end of the spectrum of seriousness."
"In other words," he added, "it's not that significant."
Silverstein also said it was impossible to say at this point what kind of sentence his client might receive after the guilty plea.
Khalid was among 18 people arrested in the Toronto area in the summer of 2006 and charged with several terrorism-related offences following an investigation by CSIS, Canada's spy agency.
Seven of the accused have since had their charges stayed or dropped. One suspect, a youth at the time of his arrest, was convicted in September of conspiring to bomb several targets.
In his ruling, the judge that convicted the youth said it was clear that a homegrown Islamic terrorist cell that adhered to al-Qaida principles and was bent on wreaking havoc and bloodshed in Canada existed.
The remaining individuals have yet to stand trial.
The offences allegedly took place between March and June 2006 in Mississauga and a rural township near Orillia, Ont., and the alleged targets included the CN Tower and Toronto Stock Exchange.
