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Defence accuses prosecutors of exaggerating extent of British bomb plot

CBC News

Momin Khawaja, centre, is shown in an Ottawa courtroom on Monday in this sketch. Khawaja’s lawyer says Crown prosecutors are trying to exaggerate the extent of the alleged bomb plot that sparked terrorism charges against his client. (Tammy Hoy/Canadian Press)Mohammad Momin Khawaja attended a terrorist training camp with the ringleader of a plot to bomb several locations in Britain, the prosecution’s star witness testified on Tuesday.

Mohammed Babar testified in the Ontario Superior Court that he met Khawaja, 29, in 2003 on his way to a training camp in northern Pakistan.

Khawaja faces seven terrorism charges for his alleged role in the foiled 2004 plot. He has pleaded not guilty and denies charges he was a co-conspirator in the al-Qaeda-inspired British cell.

Babar said Omar Khyam, one of five British Muslims convicted last year of conspiring to bomb several locations in Britain, initially introduced Babar to Khawaja.

Babar said Khawaja spent just three or four days at the training camp, firing rocket-propelled grenades, machine-guns and AK-47s.

Babar said that Khawaja gave some Canadian money to Khyam for charity and other purposes. Some of it ended up being used in the plot to hit unspecified targets in the United Kingdom.

Babar also testified that some of the men convicted in the plot had ties to Khawaja. He said they exchanged e-mails with each other and also went to Pakistan to that training camp.

Earlier, the judge presiding over the case against Khawaja, the first man charged under Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act, ruled that Babar can continue his testimony about the bomb plot foiled in Britain in 2004.

Khawaja’s defence lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, had argued that the testimony of Babar — an FBI informant who has admitted to setting up terrorist training camps in Pakistan — was hearsay and should not be allowed.

Greenspon said the Crown is exaggerating the extent of the 2004 plot and trying to smuggle in descriptions of other conspiracies, undertaken by other people, that have nothing to do with his client.

Mohammed Junaid Babar is shown in a sketch testifying at the trial of Mohammad Momin Khawaja in Ottawa on Monday. (Tammy Hoy/Canadian Press)“Just because they’ve had contact with Babar doesn’t mean that they are relevant to this case,” Greenspon told reporters outside the federal courtroom in Ottawa. “Some are related to the charges before the court. Many are not, and it was in an effort to try and limit the scope that the objection to hearsay was taken.”

But Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford ruled that the testimony can be heard with conditions, as hearsay is allowed in certain instances, including establishing a co-conspirator’s role, the CBC’s Rosemary Barton reported from outside the courthouse.

The judge also reserved the right to decide at a later point on the relevance of the evidence.

“At this early stage, I am quite unable to discern the scope and extent of the criminal enterprise,” Rutherford said.

Babar pleaded guilty to terror charges in a New York court in 2004 and was the main witness in the trials of the five men in the British cell.

During his testimony on Tuesday, Babar said his job in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan was to co-ordinate other young men who had similar desires to fight with the Taliban and who wanted to make connections with al-Qaeda.

Babar, who was born in Pakistan and raised in New York City, spoke with a slight New York accent, the CBC’s Barton said.

Khawaja’s defence team is also expected to question Babar’s credibility and cite his admission that he wants his sentence reduced in exchange for his testimony.

“They weren’t really counting on the judge disallowing this testimony,” Barton said of the defence.

Software developer held for 4 years

Khawaja was a computer software developer working for Foreign Affairs when he was arrested at his Ottawa home in 2004 as part of a British and Canadian investigation.

At the start of the trial, prosecutor David McKercher alleged Khawaja used his Foreign Affairs credentials to get into Britain, and wrote in e-mails about possibly using a courier hired by the department to send remote-control explosive detonators to London.

The trial, presided over by Rutherford alone, is expected to run until October or November. If convicted, Khawaja could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

June 25th, 2008 | Category: Canada |  Print This Post | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed