TORONTO, June 7: The suspect who had allegedly plotted to behead the Canadian prime minister had been a Canadian soldier for four years and might have received weapons training, says a newspaper report here.
The Toronto Star has learned that Steven Vikash Chand was a member of the Royal Regiment of Canada, a reservist unit that meets in Toronto.
Chand, who later converted to Islam and went by the name Abdul Shakur, is charged with belonging to a terrorist group, receiving training and recruiting or training others to participate in terrorist activity.
The charges partly involve allegations that Chand and eight other suspects spent five days last winter in a remote field in Washago, Ontario, to participate in terrorist training.
At a Brampton court on Tuesday, 15 of the 17 suspects appeared for a brief hearing.
They will remain in custody until their bail hearings begin.
Two suspects are already serving time in a Kingston penitentiary on weapons offences.
Chand’s lawyer, Gary Batasar, stunned the courtroom by revealing that his client and the 16 others were accused of being involved in a ‘detailed terrorist plot’, which included plans to storm the parliament buildings in Ottawa, take political hostages, harm hostages if Canadian troops did not withdraw from Afghanistan and to attack media outlets, including the CBC.
Batasar also asked the court to read the charges his client faces, saying Chand was still ‘unaware of the circumstances surrounding his arrest’.
Relying on a synopsis provided by government lawyers, Batasar indicated that Chand had also been accused of having planned ‘to behead Prime Minister Stephen Harper’.
After leaving the military, Chand began hanging out near the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in Scarborough near Toronto, playing sports with some of the youths and becoming interested in Islam, the centre’s imam, Aly Hindy, said.
Hindy said though he did not know Chand well, he did instruct him during a few sessions about Islam. Mohamed Ally, who knew Chand, said Chand visited schools to help troubled youths find religion.
“He’s innocent,” he said. “He’s very humble, peaceful brother.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, lawyers for nearly all of the men complained of the conditions they’ve been kept in at Maplehurst Detention Centre, an adult facility in which some of the youths have also been held.
