generalspeaking

Guilty As Charged, And Sentenced - Your Neighbour And Mine

There it is, finally, the sentence brought down by Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford in an Ottawa courtroom; Momin Khawaja, Canada's first terror suspect brought to justice. Arrested five years ago, and held at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre since that time. He will now be taken to one of the province's high-security prisons. Unfortunately, for not quite long enough.

His sentence was ten and a half years, above and beyond time already spent behind bars, although he may apply for an early release in five years' time. He has been declared a model prisoner while in incarceration. Docile and accommodating, working out daily and taking correspondence courses. Taking due care of his mind and his body, ensuring neither atrophy.

And carefully observing Islamic rituals of five daily prayers, lovingly perusing his favourite book of virtuous instruction, his personal Koran. His taciturn, moody countenance evidence of his resentment at this interruption of his life. Providing the court, during his appearances with no visible nor oral evidence of remorse or, as the judge put it, "potential for reformation".

And really, is there any potential for this young man, so besotted with the romance of jihad and the perceived need for loyal and courageous Muslims to act in solidarity with their cousins under occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine? His personal passionate committal to the cause, in the company of his Britain-located 'bros was what led British and Canadian intelligence agents to suspect him.

How likely is it that this passion has dimmed? His intent, his aspiration as declared by him and admitted by his lawyer, the redoubtable Lawrence Greenspon, was to join the mujahadeen in Afghanistan, to battle with them, against the infidel scourge of Canadian and American soldiers. Twenty-seven days of testimony in October found him guilty for his role in the plot to bomb London and other British targets.

As well as to wage a more far-flung jihad against the accursed West. During the three days that comprised the man's sentencing hearings, his lawyer pleaded on his behalf that the judge impose "time served" in custody, and release him to his parents, living in an Ottawa suburb. For his mother would dearly love to have her son home again, completing their little family, turning time back to what it had been.

What it had been, actually, was a close-knit family, dedicated to the values of Islam, committed to nearby-located mosque attendance and daily prayers. His father Mahboob Khawaja, wrote in his statement to the court that they had raised their son "in an open-ended way and taught moral concepts by his family". One might hope these were universal moral precepts.

On the other hand, as Justice Rutherford commented on the statements by his parents that created the image of "a normal family situation", there was yet a dissonance not addressed by his parents: "There was no mention of the array of military style rifles, the crates of ammunition, the other weapons, the projectile-pocked human target on the basement wall [of the family's Ottawa-area home].

"It is impossible to think that the other members of the family were oblivious to Momin's preoccupation with and proclivity to participate in violent jihad." Momin Khawaja was convicted on seven charges. Five of those convictions represented charges of participating in, contributing to, financing of, and facilitating terror. Two others related to his development and possession of an explosive device.

The Crown, represented by Crown prosecutor Bill Boutzouvis, had sought a sentence equivalent to two life terms, with concurrent fixed consecutive terms, totalling between 44 and 58 years. Presumably, this would fix in other would-be jihadists' minds that the criminal justice system in Canada is quite serious about such threats to safety and security anywhere they occur.

Those sentenced in Britain, the ringleader of the London plot and five of his accessories were sentenced to indeterminate life sentences for conspiring to murder innocent civilians. Were Momim Khawaja to be released in five years' time on early probation, he might well feel free to take up where he left off, with undiminished passion, and somewhat greater caution.

Were he to be incarcerated for 44 years, as an example, it would be fairly certain that time would have released him from his faithful dedication to the fanatical Islamist idee fixe of violent jihad to humble the west in a tide of bloodshed.

Labels: Canada, Justice, Terrorism

posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 13, 2009