Accused in Toronto 18 plot pleads guilty
Jamal James gets 3 years probation
Last Updated: Friday, February 26, 2010 | 7:11 PM ET
By Bill Gillespie, CBC News
Another accused in the so-called Toronto 18 bomb plot case will spend one more day in custody after pleading guilty Friday to participating in a terrorist group.
Jamal James, 26, who was charged under Canada's anti-terrorism laws, entered the guilty plea in a Brampton, Ont., courtroom.
He admitted to going to Pakistan in November 2005 to seek paramilitary training from a terrorist group with the intention of returning to Canada and sharing his training with others in the Toronto 18. He got sick while in Pakistan and never received training.
James would normally face seven years in jail, but because he has spent nearly three years and nine months in pre-trial custody and is awarded two-for-one credit for the time he has served, he will only have to serve one more day in custody. He will be on probation for three years.
'Thirsty for knowledge'
Defence lawyer Donald McCleod has described James as “a Muslim convert thirsty for knowledge." He got in with the wrong people and consequently his religious ideas came to include violent Jihad, the lawyer said.
James split with the Toronto 18 before officials busted the group on June 2, 2006. Members of the group are accused of plotting to wreak havoc and bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, a Canadian Security Intelligence Service building and an Ontario military base.
James was arrested the day of the bust.
The court banned James for life from possessing firearms and he will have to provide a bodily fluid sample for inclusion in the national DNA data bank.
James declined the judge’s offer to make a statement to the court.
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