Toronto bomb suspects in court

TORONTO/MONTREAL: Two men charged with an alleged al-Qaeda-backed plot to derail a Canadian passenger train made their first court appearances yesterday, and the lawyer for one said his client would fight the charges vigorously.

Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto and Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal face charges that include conspiring with each other “to murder unknown persons... for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group”.

They were arrested on Monday in separate raids after what police said was a joint Canada- US investigation that started in the middle of last year after a tip from a member of the Muslim community.

Canadian police said the plot involved a passenger train route in the Toronto area, and that there had been no immediate threat to rail passengers or to the public.

US officials said investigators on both sides of the border were trying to establish if the suspects had associates in the US, especially in New York City. One source said Esseghaier, in particular, was believed to have made several trips to the US.

Jaser was remanded (in cus- tody) after a brief hearing in Toronto. Media were barred from giving details of Jaser’s hearing under a publication ban requested by his lawyer.

Esseghaier, a Tunisian-born doctoral student at a Montreal university, was flown to Toronto on Monday, but was returned to Montreal to meet a legal requirement that he appear in a Quebec court within 24 hours of his arrest.

Canadian authorities have linked the two men to al-Qaeda factions in Iran. But they said there was no indication of Iranian state-sponsorship of the plan. – Reuters