Ottawa-Zakaria Amara, the 23-year-old Canadian considered the mastermind of the Toronto 18 plot to explode fertilizer bombs in downtown Toronto, has entered an unexpected guilty plea to two counts of terrorism after maintaining a not-guilty plea for three years. Amara faces the prospect of life in prison. The Ontario Public Prosecution Service disclosed that the plea was entered Oct. 8 to one count of participating in or contributing to a terrorist group to carry out a terrorist activity and one count of committing an indictable offense in association with a terrorist group, namely with the intent to cause an explosion that would likely cause serious bodily harm or death or serious property damage. Amara has been in custody since his arrest on June 2, 2006. Canadians consider Amara, at the time of his arrest a 20-year-old gas station attendant and married father, the prime actor in the bomb plot. Federal agents hired an undercover agent at an unprecedented expense ?Çô $4 million ?Çô to gather evidence in the probe. Before the roundups in June 2006, police infiltrated the plot and engineered a “sting” operation ?Çô the shipment of three tons of fake ammonium-nitrate fertilizer that suspects hoped to make into bombs. The Public Prosecution Service also announced plans to appeal the sentencing of Saad Khalid, who was given seven years last month for his connection with the Toronto 18. Khalid, 23, supposedly never knew of the full intentions of the plot, but was directed to acquire fertilizer and start building bombs.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain