TORONTO - Toronto 18 member Shareef Abdelhaleem was found guilty Thursday of plotting to bomb financial, intelligence and military targets.
The defence elected to call no evidence on the issue of guilt or innocence on charges of participating in a terrorist group and intending to detonate bombs, a spokesman with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said.
As such, the court found the Crown had established Abdelhaleem's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, said Dan Brien.
However, a conviction wasn't entered against Abdelhaleem, 34, because the defence has filed a notice seeking to stay the case on the basis of entrapment. The trial is expected to continue Monday with arguments on the entrapment motion.
Abdelhaleem and 17 others were arrested and charged with terrorism offences in 2006 and came to be known as the Toronto 18.
The Crown's only witness, Shaher Elsohemy, was a former friend of Abdelhaleem who became a police agent and infiltrated the terror cell. The group plotted to detonate three one-tonne truck bombs at the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an unspecified Ontario military base, court heard.
The mastermind behind what a judge called the "spine-chilling" plot, Zakaria Amara, 24, was convicted earlier this week and sentenced to life, the stiffest penalty for a terrorist offence, though he could seek parole as early as 2016.
It was the first time the maximum sentenced was handed down under Canada's anti-terrorism laws.
Elsohemy testified that Abdelhaleem initially balked at the plan after hearing Amara lay it out, saying it was not correct under Islam. But he became excited at the prospect of profiting from an attack on the stock exchange, Elsohemy said.
The informant testified Abdelhaleem sought the advice of his father, Tariq Abdelhaleem, an engineer who ran an Islamic school, about carrying out a terrorist attack on Canadian soil.
Abdelhaleem's father issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that such action would be "acceptable," placating Abdelhaleem's moral objections, Elsohemy testified.
Abdelhaleem at times had various suggestions for the plot, such as spreading the three bombs over three days instead of detonating them all on the same day, Elsohemy said. By the fourth day, Elsohemy recalled Abdelhaleem as saying, people would be afraid to even leave their houses.
Court heard Abdelhaleem's view of the plot differed from that of Amara, who wanted to exact "maximum casualties."
Abdelhaleem argued the stock exchange bomb should be set off at 6 a.m., when fewer people were around, whereas Amara thought it should happen at 9 a.m., Elsohemy testified.
Abdelhaleem also floated several other "more logical" targets if the only intention was to kill people, including: Square One Shopping Centre in Mississauga, Ont., a football or soccer game or poisoning food at a factory, Elsohemy said.
