Police mole accused of lying about so-called terrorist training camp
PHOTO: After testifying on June 18, 2008, Mubin Shaikh gestures as he leaves the Brampton courthouse where he is the Crown's star witness in the trial of a youth accused of belonging to an alleged terror cell dubbed the Toronto 18. In a stunning turn of events, a Crown prosecutor yesterday accused his star witness in the Toronto 18 terror case of fabricating some of the evidence about a so-called terrorist training camp. Police mole Mubin Shaikh was caught off guard by prosecutor John Neander's suggestion that he had lied when he said the youth on trial did not know the true purpose of the camp. Although Shaikh agreed that he considered himself "a protector of the vulnerable" – a reference to the youths who attended the December 2005 camp – he rejected any notion that he had been untruthful on the witness stand.
Neander called some of Shaikh's testimony "an invention" designed to protect the defendant.Neander pointed to inconsistencies in three areas of testimony given by Shaikh during this trial and in previous proceedings.
One of the crucial discrepancies involved why the teens were told they had to clean up the campsite when leaving.
During a preliminary hearing, Shaikh testified "we did a sweep to conceal" and cover up "anything that would give away the nature of our activities."
But during this trial, he testified the youths were given a cover story and told to clean up the camp to protect the "chipmunks and squirrels" from choking on what they'd left behind.
Neander reminded Shaikh that he had described the nature of the camp as "nefarious" and questioned why they would've needed a cover story when its true purpose was evident since they had participated in firearms training and listened to terrorist rhetoric.
"Every fibre of your being as a loyal Canadian and a devout Muslim recoiled at what (the alleged ringleader) was doing to corrupt them, isn't that correct?" Neander charged.
"Yes," Shaikh replied.
"That's why now you maintain this incorrect pretext that there was some effort ... to mislead the youths as to the purpose of the cleaning up the camp," shouted Neander.
But Shaikh remained steadfast yesterday that alleged ringleaders had concocted an innocent explanation for the camp and that the teens had no idea its intended purpose was to prepare jihadi warriors.
Defence lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky pointed out to Shaikh that the Crown had suggested he lied under oath.
"I seek refuge with Allah for such an implication," said Shaikh, denying the charge.
Another area of dispute revolved around who was present during a speech by the alleged ringleader in which he said "we're not officially part of Al Qaeda but we share their principles and methods."
Initially, Shaikh testified that everyone at the camp was present during the Al Qaeda comment, yet later said he wasn't sure who was listening.
Yesterday he changed his tune again, saying the Al Qaeda comment may not even have been part of the inflammatory speech and said he didn't know who heard it.
Shaikh was a police informant who infiltrated the group before it was busted in a massive police sweep in the summer of 2006, when 14 adults and four youths were arrested. Of the original 18, only 11 still face charges.
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See also:
Bomb plot case, 2 years later:
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'Humiliation' never goes away for 19-year-old
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