Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Closing arguments today in VIA terrorist plot trial

First Published:

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The crown prosecutor says there’s an “overwhelming” amount of evidence against two men accused of plotting to derail a VIA passenger train. Most of the evidence is in roughly 25 hours of wire-tapped conversations between the two accused, Chiheb Essaghaier and Raed Jaser, and an undercover FBI agent. Several plots to kill lots of people were discussed, most thoroughly, a plot to sabotage a VIA train over Jordan Harbour. The Crown Prosecutor says that before the undercover officer even befriended the pair of accused terrorists, they had visited the St. Catharines train station, gotten copies of the train schedule, and cased the area. They presented their plan to the undercover agent to deconstruct the bridge using jack hammers, so that the train would fall through the bridge.

Their motivation was to spread fear in Canada, until the Canadian and U.S governments withdrew troops from Muslim countries. The pair allegedly altered their plan when it became apparent that the bridge was too well constructed to destroy.

The two allegedly had a falling out – and Raed Jaser backed out of the plan. The Crown prosecutor says Raed Jaser backed out because he was afraid of being caught – but that he is still guilty of conspiracy.

Tomorrow, the defence is expected to present their closing arguments.

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