ARREST MADE WHEN SUSPECT READY TO LEAVE
RCMP tells court why Operation Samosa ended when it did in 2010
The RCMP officer who co-ordinated the surveillance operation on accused Ottawa terrorist conspirators revealed Friday that a reason police moved suddenly to “take down” the suspects in August 2010 was because one was planning leave for Saudi Arabia, where his wife had been offered a job.
It’s the first detailed explanation as to why the so-called Operation Samosa was shut down on a day that was apparently no different from many others during the yearlong investigation.
The revelation came at the end of the second week of the second trial arising from Samosa, in the of start cross-examination by defence lawyer Mark Ertel, who immediately accused prosecutors of cherry-picking evidence.
Defendant Misbahuddin Ahmed, a former diagnostic imaging technician at The Ottawa Hospital, has pleaded not guilty to three terrorism-related offences: conspiring with two others to facilitate a terrorist activity, participating in the activities of a terrorist group, and possessing an explosive device.
(A verdict is expected next month in the related case of former Canadian Idol contestant Khurram Sher, who pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy).
In a transcript of an Aug. 13, 2010, phone conversation secretly recorded by the RCMP, Ahmed’s other alleged co-conspirator, whose name is under a publication ban, announces to relatives that his wife has secured a job in Saudi Arabia.
The RCMP ended the operation and arrested the men 12 days later.
“We weren’t ready to let him leave the country,” RCMP Insp. Martin Plante told Ertel.
“By August it’s obvious to you that if (the alleged co-conspirator) was going to do something, he was no longer going to do it,” responded Ertel. “He was leaving.”
Plante, a senior undercover officer with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, said there were also significant concerns about the alleged co-conspirator’s money transfers police suspected were funding terrorism.
Ertel suggested that during the first two weeks of the trial, federal prosecutors had deliberately omitted portions of transcripts that might prove positive for Ahmed, who is being tried by a jury.
The defence has already admitted that a slew of bomb-making videos, circuit boards and jihadist material was found in Ahmed’s house after he was arrested.
But a President’s Choice grocery bag containing the material had originally been found at the coconspirator’s home during a covert search. Plante has testified that officers were surprised to find the bag had been transferred to Ahmed’s.
By not revealing to the jury that the alleged co-conspirator was planning to leave the country, prosecutors had attempted to remove the option that the materials had merely been stored at Ahmed’s home for future disposal, said Ertel.
Prosecutor Jason Wakely rejected the suggestion that he had been deliberately selective as he was reading passages from the transcripts.