The terrorist plot that Canadian authorities say they foiled included plans for a series of violent attacks in Toronto and Ottawa, holding public officials hostage, seizing media offices and beheading Prime Minister Stephen Harper if Canadian troops were not removed from Afghanistan, a lawyer for one of the accused men said in court today.
The accusations — but no evidence to support them — were included in a government summary that was given to defense attorneys just before preliminary hearings began in a courtroom here today. The document was not made public.
The charges, if true, would go far beyond the limited information that investigators have revealed about what they say was a wide-ranging conspiracy among 17 radical Muslim men and youths to use homemade explosives against unnamed targets in southern Ontario. |