‘Evidence is overwhelming’ in terror plot to derail train, Crown argues

TORONTO — A Crown lawyer is telling a jury “the evidence is overwhelming” in the case of two men accused of plotting to derail a passenger train between Canada and the U.S.

Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier face multiple terror-related charges in connection with their alleged plot to target a Via Rail train travelling from New York to Toronto.

Neither men called evidence or witnesses in their defence. Jaser pleaded not-guilty and Esseghaier, who is self-represented and does not want to participate in his trial, had a not-guilty plea entered for him by the judge presiding over the case.

In closing arguments which began this morning, Crown lawyer Croft Michaelson told jurors to be guided by their common sense when they reviewed the evidence and considered submissions of counsel in the case.

He took jurors over highlights from conversations between the two accused and an undercover FBI officer who gained their trust — hours of secret recordings that have formed the bulk of evidence in the case.

Michaelson says the Crown’s position is that there was a conspiracy to murder and a conspiracy to damage a railway bridge in the case.

He says snippets of Jaser and Esseghaier’s conversation demonstrate that they didn’t just have one attack in mind.

“They intended to carry out continuous acts of Jihad, continuous acts of terror,” he said. “It’s a general conspiracy to murder persons unknown until Canadian troops leave Muslim lands.”

The trial has heard Jaser and Esseghaier muse on the recordings about using the alleged train plot as retaliation for western military action in Muslim lands.

A rift developed between Jaser and Esseghaier as they hammered out the finer details of their plot, however, with Jaser worried about the difficulties of attacking a train, the court has heard.

Jaser, a permanent resident of Palestinian descent, eventually dropped out of the alleged plot altogether following an encounter with police while the men were on a scouting mission, the trial heard.

Michaelson noted, however, that “it is not a defence to abandon or withdraw from a conspiracy.”

Jaser and Esseghaier were arrested in April 2013.