Judge sentences Saad Gaya to 12 years in prison, but offender will likely only have to spend 4.5 years in because of time spent awaiting trial
Colin Freeze
Brampton, Ont. — Globe and Mail Update
Another bomb plotter in the so-called Toronto 18 conspiracy has been sentenced for terrorism offences, this time to a nominal term of 12 years.
Saad Gaya, 21, however, will only have to serve at most another 4.5 years in jail, because of the “dead time” he has spent awaiting trial since his June, 2006, arrest. He could be paroled for good behaviour in just over a year.
Today's sentencing of Mr. Gaya is a prelude to a stiffer punishment to be meted out later Monday against the bomb plot's ring leader.
Zakaria Amara, 24, faces life in prison when a judge sentences him later this afternoon.
Four years ago, Mr. Amara tasked several young men with helping him build powerful truck bombs to be exploded in and around Toronto. The hope of the al Qaeda-inspired plot was to force an end to Canada's participation in the Afghan war.
Mr. Gaya, an 18-year-old McMaster University student, was caught unloading bags of fertilizer from the back of a truck at the time of his arrest.
The chemicals were actually inert, part of a police sting operation that led to the mass round up of 18 suspects that summer.
“Terrorist offences are a most vile form of criminal conduct,” said Mr. Justice Bruce Durno as he passed judgment on Mr. Gaya.
But he added that the teenager was largely a helper in the larger scheme.
“Saad Gaya was not the prime mover of the plot,” Judge Durno said. “He did not know the specific locations of where the bombs were to be detonated”.
A packed courtroom of family and supporters watched Mr. Gaya's sentencing this morning and they provided some 45 letters to Judge Durno in support of a lighter sentence for Mr. Gaya.
Gaya plead guilty to terrorism offences last fall.
The Globe and Mail
