Toronto Star – September 28, 2010
The ringleader of the so-called Toronto 18 should be given a 10- to 12-year sentence because he was merely a “wannabe” with “grandiose ideas,” whose talk of storming Parliament Hill and acquiring weapons “amounted to fantasy,” a court was told on September 28th. “He is not that jihadi serial killer,” defence lawyer Dennis Edney said at the sentencing hearing of Fahim Ahmad, 25, who was arrested in June 2006 for participating in a cell that plotted to attack Canadian targets. He and co-counsel Bella Petrouchinova suggested Ahmad receive two-for-one credit for time already served in pre-trial custody. They also requested Ahmad be sent to a prison nearby so his family, which includes a wife and two children, can visit often.
While incarcerated, Ahmad has abandoned the flawed interpretations of Islam he learned as a teen when frequenting theologically conservative mosques in Mississauga and Scarborough, said Edney. “He now favours a broader interpretation of the Qu’ran. That is essential in my view,” said the lawyer, adding his client is “well on the road to rehabilitation.” Ahmad pleaded guilty in May to participating in a terrorist group, importing firearms and instructing co-accused to carry out an activity for a terrorist group.
