The Supreme Court of Canada will decide on Thursday if listening to the appeal by Raed Jaser, who was convicted of planning to commit a murder for the benefit of a terrorist group.
It is the last chapter of a long -term legal saga that began 12 years ago with charges against Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier for conspiring the attacks, including the planned sabotage of a passenger train via.
The crown alleged that Jaser and Esseghaier had agreed to kill Canadian citizens to force Canada to eliminate their military troops from Afghanistan.
The evidence of the crown consisted mainly of intercepted communications and the testimony of an undercover agent of the Federal Office of Research of the United States assigned to make Esseghaier’s friends.
A jury could not reach a verdict for Jaser in the position of the railway plot, but found it guilty of three other crimes related to terrorism: a conspiracy charge to commit murder for the benefit of a terrorist group and two positions to participate in the activities of a terrorist group. Esseghaier was convicted of all charges.
Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were convicted in March for terrorism charges
The two men appealed their convictions. Jaser’s lawyer and a lawyer appointed by the Esseghaier court argued that the jury at the trial was incorrectly constituted.
In August 2019, the Ontario Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for men claiming that the jury was incorrectly elected.
The Crown successfully argued at a subsequent Supreme Court hearing that the convictions should not be annulled on the basis of an error in the jury process that did not deny men the right trial rights.
With the problem of the jury solved, the Superior Court sent the case to the Ontario Court of Appeals to face the pending challenges of the men of their convictions.
While Esseghaier left his appeal, Jaser persisted.
In an exclusive Canadian television interview, a Tamer the dressed noury elaborately sits with Habiba Nosheen and explains the life of an undercover agent, and the terrorist plot that fruscó.
Last year, the Court of Appeals dismissed Jaser’s challenge of his sentence and life imprisonment, which led him to find a new hearing in the Supreme Court.
In a written presentation to the Superior Court to request a hearing, Jaser’s lawyers say there is a disagreement in all Canada on how to instruct jurors in cases of conspiracy, a problem that they say that the court must address.
“The jury’s instructions on the conspiracy law are too complex,” says the report. “The facts of the proposed appeal present to this court an ideal opportunity to guide the judges of judgment to simplify and distill their instructions.”
Jaser’s lawyers also ask questions about the application of the Canada’s Evidence Law regarding confidential information and if the “behavior similar to entrapment” should be taken into account when sentencing.
In an answer to the Supreme Court, the crown says that Jaser’s request must be dismissed.
“These problems are not novel and were adequately rejected by the Court of Appeals,” says the presentation of the crown. “Although the facts that give them place are unique, are specific to the circumstances of the applicant and do not raise any issues of public importance.”
