Ottawa-The Public Prosecution Service of Canada has confirmed that a reputed “Toronto 18” ringleader, on trial for a plot to unleash fertilizer bombs against several Canadian targets, has unexpectedly changed his plea to guilty. “I can confirm that Fahim Ahmad changed his plea to guilty last week,” Nathalie Houle with the PPSC advised Green Markets. The spokesperson said that no formal announcement was issued. Ahmad, 25, is the ninth person to be convicted in the terror plot. Charges were dropped against seven others. Sentencing is scheduled for June 15. He was arrested during a police sting operation in 2006 and charged with participating in a terrorist group and instructing others to carry out terrorist activities. He faces a maximum of life in prison. According to press reports, the plea came halfway through his trial. The trial of two co-defendants, the last to be prosecuted in the case, is expected to continue. In a conspiracy regarded as aimed at provoking Canada to withdraw from Afghanistan, the Toronto 18 are believed to have planned to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada’s spy agency offices, a military base, Ontario’s power grid, and a nuclear station, using fertilizer explosives packed in rented trucks. Members of the group were supposed to have purchased three tons of ammonium nitrate, but were foiled by undercover officers, who were providing a substitute inert material. Fahim, along with Steven Chand and Asad Ansari, who still face trial, were among 14 adults and four youths charged June 2, 2006, as belonging to a cell plotting the terror attack.
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