Khawaja a dangerous zealot out to sow death, says Crown

"What he actually did was set himself up as a quartermaster of terrorism," Crown attorney David McKercher declared Wednesday.

Khawaja faces seven charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act, including a key contention that he built a remote-control device, dubbed the Hi-Fi Digimonster, for use by a British group planning bomb attacks in and around London.

His co-conspirators - five of whom were convicted by a London jury last year - hadn't selected final targets when police and security officers broke up their plot. But they were considering attacks on a nightclub, shopping centre and gas and electric facilities.

Had the plan come to fruition it would have resulted in "disastrously" extensive loss of life and damage to property, said McKercher.

Using some of the strongest language he's employed since the trial began, the federal lawyer painted Khawaja as a "zealot with deadly intentions."

The Crown has acknowledged that the Ottawa software designer didn't know all the details of the U.K. plot. But that doesn't make him any less guilty, McKercher told Justice Douglas Rutherford, who is hearing the case without a jury.

"Momin Khawaja was prepared to provide and metaphorically pull the trigger of a very powerful weapon," said McKercher.

Aside from the British bomb plot, Khawaja faces charges that he facilitated and financed terrorism by acting as a courier for money and supplies destined for al-Qaida operatives in Pakistan, and by funnelling cash to colleagues in Britain through a bank account set up in Ottawa.

He's also accused of taking terrorist training at a camp in Pakistan, and of making a house owned by his family in Pakistan available for terrorist use.

The range of charges, said McKercher, reflects the fact that "Momin Khawaja's commitment to violent jihad was all-consuming and not one-dimensional."

Defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon has maintained the London plotters kept Khawaja in the dark about their intentions to mount attacks in Britain.

He says his client's only intent was to join Taliban insurgents and fight as a "front-line jihadi soldier" against western forces in Afghanistan. Khawaja thought the Digimonster would be used in bomb attacks against military targets there, says Greenspon.

The defence lawyer has also accused the Crown of shifting its focus in the middle of the case to raise the spectre of worldwide jihad because it can't tie Khawaja conclusively to the British bomb plot.

McKercher dismissed that argument Wednesday as a sleight-of-hand trick in which Greenspon has shuffled the walnut shells to conceal the truth that lies beneath.

It's been apparent from the start, said the Crown attorney, that the case against Khawaja doesn't rest entirely on the U.K. plot and Greenspon knows it.

"For him to pretend to be surprised or caught off-guard . . . is disingenuous in the extreme."

There's strong evidence Khawaja knew that bombings were planned for Britain, said McKercher. But even if he was aiming at Afghan targets - which could have included Canadian troops - the Crown maintains he's still guilty of a terrorist offence.

Rutherford is currently considering a defence motion to quash the charges against Khawaja on grounds that the Crown hasn't produced enough evidence to sustain them.

Prosecutors are urging him to reject the motion. If the judge does so, it will force Greenspon to continue with his defence case and decide whether to call Khawaja as a witness on his own behalf - a move that would open him to cross-examination by the prosecution.

Arguments on the motion to quash are scheduled to conclude Friday, after which Rutherford will likely take several days before delivering a ruling.