Terror trial outcome delights one expert, appals another

While driving his children to Florida on holiday from North Carolina’s Duke University, Professor Omid Safi pulled over Friday to celebrate the release of convicted Canada Day bombers John Nuttall and Amanda Korody.

Safi’s expert testimony underpins the reasoning and the understanding of Islam used in B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce’s decision Friday to stay the guilty terrorism verdicts rendered last year against the pair.

Safi was an the expert witness in the copycat Boston Bombing case that the judge said police manufactured and reviewed hundreds of pages of conversations recorded between undercover RCMP officers and the couple in the B.C. case.

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Omid Safi, professor at Duke University: ‘In my opinion, the many undercover officers committed two important errors.’

The judge agreed completely.

Nuttall persistently emphasized to undercover officers that he was not knowledgeable about matters related to Islamic theology, the Qur’an and teachings related to Jihad, and was searching for authentic Islamic guidance.

“Had Mr. Nuttall been allowed to do so, it would have been reasonable to assume that a credible Muslim scholar would have pointed out the restrictions on attacks on civilians as clearly stipulated in the Qur’an and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad,” Safi said.

“Second, the RCMP officers put themselves (rather than Muslim scholars) in the position of interpreting Islamic theology, and did so in an erroneous way to suggest that had Mr. Nuttall killed someone, it would have been God’s will for him to do that. I find their (and any state’s agents) putting themselves in the situation of offering such erroneous and dangerous interpretations of any religion to be profoundly problematic.”

Again, Bruce was swayed by that view.

Safi said the Canadian government should work to establish close relationships with the Muslim community based on trust and mutual goodwill, “and not expensive protocols of entrapment that do nothing to keep us safer, and actually foster an environment of suspicion.”

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Andre Gerolymatos: The judge’s assessment speaks to a poor understanding of the challenges in combating terrorism.

The former member of the Canadian Advisory Council on National Security and co-director of terrorist risk and security studies at SFU, Gerolymatos said he was surprised by the outcome of the trial involving a plot to kill hundreds during 2013 national day celebrations at the legislature.

“The judge’s assessment speaks to a poor understanding of the challenges in combating terrorism,” he said.

In Gerolymatos’s opinion, Nuttall and Korody fit the profile of those recruited by organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIL or ISIS. 

“As in the case of (accused Paris attacker) Salah Abdeslam in Belgium who, after he was deported, his lawyer said he had the IQ of an ashtray.”

A French national of Moroccan descent with links to ISIL, Abdeslam is allegedly the only survivor of the terrorist cell that ran amok in the French capital, setting off bombs and firing automatic weapons, killing 130 people and injuring 368.

“Abdeslam bought a book online on, you know, Islam for Dummies,” Gerolymatos scoffed.

“They are people that have tremendous psychological problems. They are prime targets for ISIS to be converted online and to answer your question, yes indeed, (Nuttall and Korody) could have carried it out.”

He emphasized that so-called lone-wolf terrorist was “a very big threat because they are unpredictable.”

Gerolymatos wanted much tougher laws and a much sterner attitude from the judiciary.

“Clearly the judge, with all due respect, is living in another universe,” he maintained. “This is not the way the world works any more … ISIS has a clear signal that, you know, B.C. is a good place to get lone wolves.”

imulgrew@postmedia.com

twitter.com/ianmulgrew

Related

• Terrorism conviction stayed, Surrey couple is freed on conditions
• Family of Canada Day 'terrorist' ready to welcome him home

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