Cop denies he was seen as jihad ‘master’
An undercover cop denied a suggestion by a defence lawyer on Tuesday that he was seen by two terror suspects as a “master mujahed” and picked out the targets for bombs to be placed on the lawns of the Victoria legislature.
The questions for the cop, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, came as Mark Jette, a lawyer for one of the accused, wrapped up his cross-examination of the key Crown witness after more than two months of his testimony.
Jette, who represents accused Amanda Korody, quoted from passages in a police transcript of a taped conversation involving Korody, her co-accused John Nuttall and the cop just prior to the alleged plot to detonate bombs at the legislature on Canada Day 2013.
He noted that Nuttall spoke of how he and Korody were the “students” and the cop was the master, with the cop denying that he was a master.
“You don’t want to be known as the master?” asked Jette.
“No, because I’m not,” the cop told a B.C. Supreme Court jury in Vancouver.
“And you don’t want to be known as the mastermind, either, do you?” said Jette.
“No, because it’s not my idea,” replied the cop.
He testified that when Nuttall referred to him as being the master, he was talking about the “religious” side of Islam.
Jette pointed out that there was nothing in the transcript to indicate the reference had any religious connotation.
“No, but that’s what I think,” said the cop, who during the undercover operation was playing the role of an Arab businessman sympathetic to Islamic Jihad.
Jette then quoted from a passage in the transcript in which Nuttall told the cop that the cop had experience and they had none and Nuttall was asking him to be taught.
“You’ll agree with me that the context there doesn’t appear to be religious?” said Jette.
“I don’t know what to say,” said the cop. “That’s what I think.”
Jette suggested that Nuttall thought of the cop as the “master mujahed” — the master of those who engage in jihad — but the cop denied that suggestion.
The defence lawyer suggested that all of the resources of the RCMP undercover operation targeting Nuttall and Korody were in place by June 30, 2013 and that it was too late to stop — another suggestion denied by the cop.
“That’s why, I’m going to suggest to you, you pointed out ultimately the target locations yourself on the legislative lawn,” said Jette.
“I’ll say no again,” said the cop, who has been on the witness stand since the trial began in early February.
Crown counsel Peter Eccles is expected to cross-examine the cop again beginning Wednesday.
Nuttall and Korody have pleaded not guilty to four terrorism-related charges.