Member of the “Toronto 18” terror plot gets life sentence
Posted Mar 4, 2011 02:52:09 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BRAMPTON, Ont. – A member of a homegrown terrorist group involved in a plot to set off truck bombs in front of Canada’s main stock exchange and two government buildings received a life sentence on Friday.
Shareef Abdelhaleem, 35, was a member of the so-called “Toronto 18” plot to set off bombs outside Toronto’s Stock Exchange, a building housing Canada’s spy agency and a military base.
He was convicted last year of participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. Judge Fletcher Dawson gave Abdelhaleem the same sentence as the group’s ringleader, Zakaria Amara
Abdelhaleem will eligible to begin applying for parole as early as 2016.
The judge said Abdelhaleem was motivated by the thought of getting rich after the attacks wreaked havoc on the stock market, but also had a fantasy of being a hero in the Islamic world.
“Mr. Abdelhaleem exhibits no genuine remorse or insight into his behaviour and has so far not accepted responsibility for his dangerous actions,” Dawson said.
