Khawaja Should be Freed Because He Wanted to be a Mujahedeen not a Terrorist

The past couple of weeks have been interesting in Canada's first anti-terrorism court case. Momim Khawaja is on trial for 7 charges for participating in, facilitating and financing a terrorist group and its activities. The defence admits Mr. Khawaja was making a remote-control detonating device for a terror cell in England planning to blow up a nightclub.

A couple of weeks ago, lawyers for Momim Khawaja, argued that he should be freed because he never planned on being a terrorist but wanted to become a mujahedeen in Afghanistan to fight NATO troops including Canadians.

Lawrence Greenspon said prosecution testimony and other evidence, including Mr. Khawaja's emails, repeatedly suggest he wanted to join the mujahedeen and do what he could to support Muslim insurgents to quench his rage for what he perceived to be a new Crusade against the Muslim world.

While joining the mujahedeen and Taliban against Canadian and other western troops may be offensive, it is not what he is on trial for, Mr. Greenspon said.

Khawaja had travelled to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. He received training to use rocket-propelled grenade launchers, light machine-guns and AK-47s....

Several days ago the presiding Judge questioned Khawaja's liability in the case because Khawaja did not know the specifics of the bomb plot in England.

"You can't participate in a plot if you didn't know about it," he told Mr. McKercher.

The freakin defense admits that Khawaja was building a remote control detonator, dubbed the Hi-Fi Digimonster. So Khawaja must've have had an inkling of an idea that the terror cell in England was planning to blow something up.

On Thursday the prosecution rebutted the Defense's arguements and laid out some of the plans of Khawaja's and the English terrorists.

The terror cell, he continued, was not formed for the single purpose of blowing up public spots in and around London and other parts of Britain with 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which is easily turned into a high explosive.

It "was by no means the end of the group's and Mr. Khawaja's intentions," he said, describing how group members talked about flying an explosives-laden, remote-controlled model plane through a window of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence agency office.

There was other talk about poisoning beer and food at British soccer matches and suicide bombings in Israel. Mr. Khawaja wrote about deposing the leaders of Muslim lands who are allied with the West, and a list of British synagogues was found in the home of one conspirator.

Related Posts:
Khawaja lived for jihad
Terror trial begins in Canada