Ottawa-A judge has ruled that Toronto 18 member Shareef Abdelhaleem was not induced or persuaded by a government agent to carry out his role in the foiled anti-Afghanistan war plot to explode massive fertilizer bombs at Canadian landmarks. According to the Ottawa Prosecution Service, Abdelhaleem was to be sentenced Feb. 19 to a possible maximum life in prison, but he has 30 days to decide whether to appeal this decision. His lawyers had argued his conviction should be stayed because he had been lured into a plot by a former friend working as an undercover agent as part of a police sting. The judge, however, found that he was not induced or persuaded by the government agent to commit the crimes for which he was found guilty on Jan. 21, and that he took up the cause with “full knowledge” of what he was involved in. “The evidence contains many instances where he advanced the bomb plot,” the judge concluded. Abdelhaleem, the seventh person to be arrested in the plot, has been in custody since his arrest on June 2, 2006. In another Toronto 18 case, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada on Feb. 16 filed notice of appeal of the sentencing of Saad Gaya, 22, who was sentenced to 12 years in January, but would only have to serve 4½ years after taking into account pretrial custody. The Crown had been seeking 17 to 18 years.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain