Lankan found guilty in Canada Terror Plot

A judge on Thursday found a youth suspect guilty in a plot to bomb Canadian government offices and attack the prime minister, in the first trial of a member of the so-called Toronto 18.

The judge said there was credible evidence of a terrorist plot aimed at targets in North America. But the judge said the man could not be convicted yet because of a technicality.

The judge's 50-page ruling hinged on whether the information provided by a paid police informant was credible. The judge said that prosecutors did not have to prove that the suspects were capable of carrying out a terrorist attack or that there was a specific plan, only that they could be demonstrated to be a terrorist group.

Because the man on trial was 17 years old when arrested, he cannot be identified under Canadian law. The man, who was accused of participating in terrorist training, moved to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1994 and was raised a Hindu. He converted to Islam in high school and met many of his accused accomplices, including a man prosecutors depict as the ringleader, at a mosque in the Scarborough area of Toronto.

Ontario Superior Court Justice John Sproat rendered his verdict in Brampton, Ont., courtroom, saying evidence that a terrorist conspiracy existed was "overwhelming," according to the Canadian Press.

The story that first emerged about the 18 men and teenagers, all Muslims, who were arrested in and around Toronto in June 2006, was deeply disturbing. Police officials and prosecutors told of plots to bomb government offices in Toronto and Ottawa as well as a nuclear power station, and of a planned attack on Parliament with the aim of capturing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and decapitating him.

New York Times