Accused terrorists’ trial begins
An accused terrorist now on trial in Toronto allegedly questioned a jihadi plan to derail a Canadian passenger train, worried it might not be bloody enough to justify the work involved.
Raed Jaser, one of two men charged in the alleged 2012 plot, instead hoped to assassinate Canadian leaders, prominent Jews or “Zionists,” Crown attorney Croft Michaelson told the jury in his opening address Monday.
Jaser, who came to Canada illegally as a teen in 1993, told an undercover FBI agent in 2012 that attacking a train would only result in the killing of “a few sheep,” Michaelson said.
Instead, Jaser allegedly wanted to hire a sniper — or learn to shoot a sniper rifle himself — to assassinate Canadian leaders. Jaser allegedly told the agent that, unlike in the United States, Canadian leaders are accessible “because they feel safe.”
“We don’t want the sheep,” Jaser allegedly told the agent. “We want the wolf. We can get the wolf, brother. We can get the wolf.”
Jaser is on trial with Chiheb Esseghaier, a former PhD student in Montreal originally from Tunisia. The two men are accused of planning a foreign-directed plot to derail a Via passenger train travelling between Toronto and New York.
In his opening statement Monday, Michaelson said the two men were recorded repeatedly examining bridge sites outside St. Catharines, Ont., and in Scarborough, a Toronto suburb.
The goal of the alleged plan was to knock out a portion of one of the bridges, thus toppling the train and likely causing dozens of deaths.
But Jaser repeatedly questioned the plan, Michaelson said, saying “it was a lot of work to kill only 50 or 60 people.” He allegedly wanted to “create a bigger
“It was a lot of work to kill only 50o r 60 people. (He wanted to ) create a bigger impact by killing other targets, like Jews, with a sniper rifle. CROFT MICHAELSON CROWN ATTORNEY
impact,” the Crown attorney said, “by killing other targets, like Jews, with a sniper rifle.”
The jury trial, which is scheduled to last between six and eight weeks, is expected to feature days of testimony from an undercover FBI agent, whose name is covered by a publication ban, as well as hours of intercepted and recorded conversations between Esseghaier, Jaser and the agent.
In his opening address, Michaelson said that Esseghaier and Jaser, “motivated by Islamic extremism,” plotted to murder Canadians to “instil fear in the community.” They did this, he said, “so that Canadians and Americans would remove their troops from Muslim lands.”
The two men allegedly told the agent, who infiltrated their two-man cell, of a plan to cut a five- to six-metre hole in a railway bridge between New York and Toronto. The preferred goal, Jaser allegedly said, would be to target the first-class passengers on the train. Because “when the higher ranks die,” he said, according to Michaelson, “they will go crazy.”
Esseghaier also allegedly told the agent that a “mujahedeen brother” had given him the idea of hiring a cook to poison the food on a Canadian military base.
Esseghaier and Jaser, who are both in their 30s, were arrested in April 2013 following a long cross-border investigation. Both have been in custody ever since.
In court Monday, they sat side-by-side, separated by glass. Esseghaier, who is representing himself, had long, tangled hair and a long beard. Jaser wore a grey suit with a blue shirt and black tie, his hair and beard neatly trimmed. He has a team of lawyers working on his behalf.