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| Great White North |
| Canadian pleads guilty to terrorism: reports |
| 2009-09-23 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] A Canadian has pleaded guilty of a terrorist association with a group of alleged Islamic militants accused of plotting attacks in Toronto and Ottawa in 2006, Canadian media reported. Ali Dirie, 26, who entered the plea Monday, was the second member of the "Toronto 18" group to plead guilty to terrorism charges, after Saad Khalid, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison earlier this month. The reports in the National Post and the Toronto Star could not immediately be confirmed with the Canadian justice ministry. Born in Somalia and raised in Syria and Toronto, Dirie was arrested on the Canadian-U.S. border August 13, 2005 while trying to reenter Canada with two loaded semi-automatic handgun, the National Post said on its website. The driver of the vehicle, Yasin Mohamed, also was carrying a weapon, according to authorities. Initially, the two men were prosecuted and imprisoned for illegal possession of firearms. But on June 26 they were indicted on terrorism charges after authorities disrupted a plot that allegedly targeted Toronto's CN Tower, the city's stock exchange, a building housing the Canadian secret service, and the parliament in Ottawa. Charges were subsequently dropped against Mohamed but not Dirie. To foil the plot, the police infiltrated the group, whose objective allegedly was to gain the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan. Dirie is scheduled to appear Wednesday before a court in a Toronto suburb for sentencing hearings. A sentence is expected Oct. 2, according to the Toronto Star. Seven of the 18 people arrested in mid-2006 were quickly released without charges. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Anywhere in the world they have Muslims they have terrorism. |
| Posted by: Ana 2009-09-23 10:16 |