The terror trial of Awso Peshdary was adjourned Wednesday following three days of hearings in which court heard testimony about the path to jihad allegedly taken by two of Peshdary’s associates, Ottawa students John Maguire and Khadar Khalib.

Both are presumed dead after travelling to Syria to join the ranks of ISIL.

The RCMP arrested Peshdary, now 28, in February 2015 and accused him of being a top ISIL recruiter and financier. International arrest warrants remain active for Maguire, 24, the Kemptville man who appeared in a notorious December 2014 ISIL recruitment video calling on Muslims to wage jihad on Canadian soil, and Khalib, 23, an Algonquin College student who left Ottawa in March 2014 and surfaced on social media in photos from an ISIL battlefield.

Peshdary has pleaded not guilty in a trial wrought with delays and covered by a sweeping publication ban on the names of the federal Crown witnesses.

Court was adjourned abruptly Wednesday when the travel agent who booked a flight to Syria told court he needed more time to produce “more complete” records of the transaction.

Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett adjourned the oft-delayed trial until mid-September.

In testimony Tuesday, court was told Khalib had once applied for admission to an Alberta aviation school, but was rejected.

“He dreamed of a job in aviation,” court heard, but Khalib did not have the grades required for admission. He then enrolled in an Algonquin College business program.

The identities of those who testified Tuesday are protected by a publication ban.

He had a job in Ottawa, paid no rent and had no living expenses, and saved his own money to pay tuition.

While at Algonquin, court heard that Khalib became involved with a “core group of friends” in the campus Muslim Students’ Association.

There were “no warning signs” of radicalization, court heard, before Khalib was dropped off at an Ottawa bus station one day in late March 2014 and was never seen again, except in photos circulated later on social media showing him dressed in mujahideen fatigues, holding an assault rifle in front of an ISIL flag.

He had told those close to him he was going to Toronto “to relax.”

Court was told Khalib instead used his own money, earmarked for college tuition, to pay for a flight to Syria.

When his loved ones checked his room back home, “Everything was gone,” court heard. “It was like a nightmare.”

When they finally reached him through Facebook, Khalib apparently told them he was in Syria for “humanitarian reasons.”

They urged him to come back home, with one recalling in court: “This is not your cause, it’s not your war. You shouldn’t be there.”

He ignored their pleas to return home.

On a request from Peshdary’s lawyer, Solomon Friedman, Parfett signed a recommendation to keep Peshdary incarcerated in Ottawa until his trial resumes.

— With files from Gary Dimmock

ahelmer@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/helmera </s> The terrorism trial of Ottawa’s Awso Peshdary, alleged Islamic State recruiter and financier, is finally underway after years of legal and law enforcement delays.

Peshdary was formally arraigned Monday in an Ottawa courtroom on charges of participating in the activity of a terrorist group, facilitating an activity for a terrorist group, and two counts of conspiring to participate or contribute to an activity of a terrorist group with local men John Maguire and Khadar Khalib — both of whom are presumed dead.

Peshdary has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The family of John Maguire, alleged by prosecutors to have been the star recruit of Peshdary testified Monday, painted the picture of a fallen son who went from being a parent’s dream to depressed loner to a radicalized Muslim convert who left for Syria without telling any of them, only to be presumed killed near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.

Maguire grew up in Kemptville and after an ISIL propaganda video starring the white-skinned Canadian was broadcast through ISIL channels, he became a face of homegrown terrorism exported to the Middle East, never to be seen again.

Christopher Maguire, John’s cousin but more like a brother, told the court that Peshdary and John were good friends. They often saw him at Friday prayers.

Once Maguire had left to join ISIL in Syria, Peshdary either texted or called Chris to say he needed to meet with him urgently. When they did, Chris said, Peshdary had a message for him from John and gave him two books on Islam to give to his family.

Chris, too, had converted to Islam and Peshdary was “a little pushy” when he heard that Chris had “taken a step back” from his practice of the faith.

William Langenberg, Maguire’s stepfather, told the court about his son’s “open personality,” how he liked to joke and would use his aptitude in chemistry class to make friends with girls. But the John they knew had changed. Once a lover of music and well-known in the community, he destroyed his prized guitars in the backyard to prevent himself and others from sinning.

After moving to California in 2009 to attend college, John asked to come back just the next year.

“He came back as a loner,” Langenberg said. “He smoked a lot of dope in California” and “he was full of fear, felt isolated and lonely.”

His relationships were gone. That is, until he connected with a group of friends in Ottawa, Peshdary allegedly among them.

“It happened gradually,” Langenberg said of the change. John had new friends, he found a new religion, he was eating halal, changing his clothing, and he had a Muslim girlfriend who wore a hijab.

His family didn’t want to lose him. “We never interfered.”

But then he was concerned at a Christmas dinner about family dogs accidentally touching him. He called his sister a whore for wearing certain outfits and exposing her skin.

Once John left for Syria, where he told his family he was doing humanitarian work, they remained in contact with him. But the conversations centred on his faith and how concerned he was that his friends in Ottawa were being followed by the police.

The last time Langenberg heard from him was one week before the propaganda video made national news in November 2012.

In that six-minute video played in court, Maguire tells all Canadians that he was one of them, but now “your people will be indiscriminately targeted as you indiscriminately target our people.

“You either pack your bags or you prepare your explosive devices,” Maguire told the camera. The choice was to purchase airline tickets or sharpen their knives.

Maguire, while still in Canada, had worked part-time jobs at the Independent Grocer, Zellers and Walmart. His stepfather co-signed a student loan for him to attend the University of Ottawa.

“How he got all that money together to go to Syria, I don’t know,” Langenberg said.

On cross-examination, Langenberg told the court that he had assumed John had also made some money from an e-book he wrote in college.

His student loans, however, were also in excess of $17,000 — money that Langenberg has no account of. The stepfather also has no bill for university tuition, leaving how that money was spent a mystery to him.

The loan was eventually paid off. But Langenberg has no idea by whom.

Shirley Anne Maguire, John’s grandmother, told the judge-alone trial she had been up all night before her testimony.

She remembers the last time she saw John, standing in her house saying he was going over to a friend’s to study. Days later CSIS would come knocking on her door to tell her that Maguire was in Turkey.

In the time before he left, Maguire had wanted her to go to mosque with him.

“I told him that there was nobody on two feet that would sway me from what I believed,” she said.

“I honestly felt he was being brainwashed. I think he was programmed and he was afraid of going to hellfire.”

She had a hard time describe the “bronze”-skinned, “dark”-haired friend who was with John before he left her house and the country for good. “They all look alike to me.”

Peshdary was swept up by RCMP in 2015 alongside three other Ottawa men who were part of a terrorism cluster in the capital.

Twins Ashton and Carlos Larmond and their friend Suliman Mohamed have all pleaded guilty to their offences and remain in federal prison.

Peshdary was originally slated to stand trial in 2016, then in March 2018, before further delays finally brought evidence to an Ottawa courtroom. </s> The Ontario appeals court has thrown out the convictions of two men sentenced to life over an alleged al-Qaida-linked plot to attack a Toronto-bound passenger train.

In a decision released Tuesday, the court ordered a new trial for Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier, who were arrested by the RCMP in 2013 and found guilty of terrorism in 2015.

The appeals court set aside their convictions in a unanimous ruling that said “a legal error by the trial judge” had deprived Jaser of his preferred method for selecting jurors.

WATCH: Via Rail terror plotter to appeal life sentence after undergoing mental health treatment

The pair were arrested following Project Smooth, an RCMP national security investigation that began in 2012 and involved an undercover FBI informant who infiltrated the alleged plot.

Esseghaier is a Tunisian who came to Canada in 2008 and was a doctoral student in Quebec. He had allegedly travelled to Iran and received “direction and guidance” from al-Qaida “elements,” police alleged.

Jaser is a former Markham, Ont., school van driver and mover from Abu Dhabi. A Toronto Muslim leader said Jaser’s father had approached him about his son’s religious views.

The appeal centred on the difference between static and rotating “triers” — those who decide whether to accept a challenge by either the Crown or defence to a potential juror.

Rotating triers are two people who will serve on the jury, and they change (rotate) as each additional jury member is sworn in, according to Canada’s Criminal Code.

Meanwhile, static triers are two people, usually appointed by a judge, who hear and determine all challenges until the entire jury has been selected, but who do not themselves become members of the jury.

READ MORE: 2 men found guilty in Via Rail terror plot asking for new trial, argue jury improperly selected

Leah West, a national security law expert at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, said rotating triers are now the standard because there is a greater risk of bias with static triers.

“Two people have a huge impact on how the jury gets made up,” she said.

Following the appeal decision in their favor, Jaser and Esseghaier can apply to be released on bail, she said.

As recently as December, the case was cited by the government as a successful disruption of a terrorist attack, as well as an example of the ongoing interest in targeting trains and rail infrastructure.

“The trial judge’s error here took one of the three options, the exclusion of unsworn jurors while using rotating triers, away from Jaser,” the three justices wrote in their decision.

Other high-profile cases have been overturned due to similar errors, including that of a man convicted of 2nd-degree murder in a 2012 shooting at Toronto’s Eaton Centre.

READ MORE: Jihadi Jack hopes Canada will take him as Trudeau says laws will be enforced

“Fair jury selection is especially important in cases like this with saturation level publicity,” said Megan Savard, an appeal lawyer for Jaser.

Savard said the fundamental difference between rotating triers and static triers was that a jury selected by rotating triers is chosen by a larger group of people, resulting in a more impartial jury.

Jaser had wanted rotating triers during jury selection but did not get them, she said. “Mr. Jaser has been in jail since his arrest in 2013 waiting for a fair trial in front of jury chosen legally.” </s> TORONTO -- Two men found guilty of terrorism charges in connection with a plot to derail a passenger train between Canada and the U.S. were granted a new trial Tuesday after Ontario's highest court found the jury that convicted them was improperly selected.

Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were found guilty in 2015 on a total of eight terror-related charges between them. They were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole until 2023.

The two challenged their convictions, and lawyers for Jaser argued the trial judge mistakenly rejected their client's request regarding the method of jury selection.

The lawyer appointed to assist Esseghaier -- who continues to be self-represented -- agreed in written arguments that a new trial had to be ordered on that ground.

The law regarding jury selection was in flux during the trial but the appeal court said in its ruling that the approach used by the judge has since been deemed wrong. Several other cases have been overturned due to similar errors in recent years.

Though Esseghaier, who largely chose not to participate in the trial proceedings, had not expressed a preference as to jury selection, he should receive a new trial, the appeal court said Tuesday.

"Here, one jury was selected for both appellants. In the circumstances of this case, as the jury was not properly constituted for Jaser, it cannot be considered to have been properly constituted for Esseghaier," the court said in a unanimous decision.

Jaser had also raised other grounds for appeal but the jury issue was heard first. Both men also previously indicated they wished to challenge their sentences, but the call for a new trial makes that unnecessary.

The pair was arrested in April 2013 after a months-long investigation that involved an undercover FBI agent who gained their trust and secretly recorded hours of their conversations.

The two were recorded speaking about terror plots they would conduct in retaliation for Canada's military actions in Muslim countries, including the derailment of a Via Rail train travelling between New York and Toronto.

Those recordings made up the bulk of the evidence in the case. </s> Jaser and Esseghaier were found guilty in 2015 on a total of eight terror-related charges between them

Chiheb Esseghaier is led off a plane by an RCMP officer at Buttonville Airport just north of Toronto on April 23, 2013. A man found guilty of plotting to derail a passenger train between Canada and the U.S. plans to appeal his conviction at Ontario’s highest court. Esseghaier, a deeply religious Muslim, argues he ought to have been judged by the rules of the Qur’an.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Ontario’s highest court has ordered a new trial for two men found guilty of terrorism charges in connection with a plot to derail a passenger train.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario says the jury that convicted Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier was improperly selected, which means its verdict cannot stand.

Jaser and Esseghaier were found guilty in 2015 on a total of eight terror-related charges between them. They were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole until 2023.

Lawyers for Jaser argued the trial judge mistakenly rejected their client’s request regarding the method of jury selection.

The lawyer appointed to assist Esseghaier — who continues to be self-represented — agreed in written arguments that a new trial must be ordered on that ground.

The law regarding jury selection was in flux during the trial but the appeal court says the approach used by the judge has since been deemed wrong. Several other cases have been overturned due to similar errors in recent years.

Jaser had also raised other grounds for appeal but the jury issue was heard first.

Both men also previously indicated they wished to challenge their sentences, but the call for a new trial makes that unnecessary.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> A Canadian appeals court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for two men accused of plotting to derail a passenger train travelling between Toronto and New York, citing errors in the jury selection.

Tunisian national Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, a Canadian resident of Palestinian descent, were convicted in 2015 of an Al-Qaeda-backed conspiracy to commit murders and sentenced to life in prison.

But the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the trial judge mishandled the jury selection process, resulting in an "improperly constituted jury," which means their verdict cannot stand.

The trial heard that the pair were "motivated by Islamic extremism and had planned terrorist attacks on non-Muslim targets or victims."

The attack allegedly would have marked the start of a campaign of terror to try to convince Canada and its allies to leave Muslim lands.

Prosecutors said the pair had planned to cut a large hole in a railway bridge to derail a Via Rail train, with the aim of killing and injuring passengers and crew.

Esseghaier, who was doing doctoral research in Canada, acted on instructions from overseas extremists, they alleged.

Key evidence came in the form of recordings by an undercover FBI agent who befriended the pair. </s> TORONTO — Ontario’s highest court has ordered a new trial for two men found guilty of terrorism charges in connection with a plot to derail a passenger train.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario says the jury that convicted Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier was improperly selected, which means its verdict cannot stand.

Jaser and Esseghaier were found guilty in 2015 on a total of eight terror-related charges between them. They were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole until 2023.

Lawyers for Jaser argued the trial judge mistakenly rejected their client’s request regarding the method of jury selection.

The lawyer appointed to assist Esseghaier — who continues to be self-represented — agreed in written arguments that a new trial must be ordered on that ground.

The law regarding jury selection was in flux during the trial but the appeal court says the approach used by the judge has since been deemed wrong.

Several other cases have been overturned due to similar errors in recent years.

Jaser had also raised other grounds for appeal but the jury issue was heard first.

Both men also previously indicated they wished to challenge their sentences, but the call for a new trial makes that unnecessary.
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• ‘Delusional’ Via Rail plotter now on anti-psychotics, plans appeal </s> The province’s top court has ordered a new trial for two men sentenced to life in prison for plotting terrorist acts including, for one, planning to derail a Via Rail train, because of the way the jury that heard their trial was picked.

The case is one of several, including that of Eaton Centre shooter Christopher Husbands, that have been appealed due to a judge’s decision to order a specific method of jury selection against the explicit wishes of the defendant.

After a six-week jury trial in 2015, and ten days of deliberations by the jury, both Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit of a terrorist group and of two counts of participating in terrorist activity. Esseghaier was also convicted of conspiracy to derail a Via Rail train, Jaser was not.

Both men appealed on additional grounds beyond jury selection, including whether Esseghaier’s deteriorating mental health impacted the trial. Esseghaier refused to participate in the trial and did not have his own lawyer.

Having now been treated for schizophrenia, Esseghaier argues he was unfit during the trial and sentencing.

Those arguments will no longer be heard as a result of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision to order a new trial.

On Tuesday afternoon the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said in a statement it would be proceeding with the prosecution, noting it has 60 days to decide whether to seek leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The problem with the way the jury was selected stems from a part of the process known as the “challenge for cause” where lawyers are permitted to ask potential jurors about whether their decisions might be biased by pre-trial publicity or by the defendants being visible minorities and Muslim.

The potential juror’s answers are assessed by two people from the jury pool known as “triers.” They decide if the potential juror should be on the jury or not. The triers can either be “static” —the same two people assess each potential juror and don’t sit on the final jury — or “rotating” where the triers are two people on the jury and they rotate as triers each time a new jury member is selected.

Jaser requested rotating triers be used and that the jury pool be excluded from the courtroom while each potential juror was questioned to “protect jury impartiality by avoiding exposing unsworn jurors to other jurors’ answers,” according to the Court of Appeal decision.

Superior Court Justice Michael Code ruled that the jury pool could only be excluded if static triers were used. He ordered that static triers be used and that all potential and selected jurors be excluded from the courtroom.

The Court of Appeal has since found this to be incorrect, ordering retrials in some cases and upholding convictions in others. In this case, the Court of Appeal found that Jaser was denied the jury selection option he was entitled to by law. This resulted in “prejudice to the due administration of justice flowing from the denial of a jury selection method which was in law properly invoked,” according to the decision.

The court also found that since the jury was not properly constituted for Jaser, it cannot be considered to have been properly constituted for Esseghaier, and therefore both men are entitled to a new trial. </s> TORONTO — Two men found guilty of terrorism charges in connection with a plot to derail a passenger train between Canada and the U.S. were granted a new trial Tuesday after Ontario’s highest court found the jury that convicted them was improperly selected.

Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were found guilty in 2015 on a total of eight terror-related charges between them. They were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole until 2023.

The two challenged their convictions, and lawyers for Jaser argued the trial judge mistakenly rejected their client’s request regarding the method of jury selection. The lawyer appointed to assist Esseghaier — who continues to be self-represented — agreed in written arguments that a new trial had to be ordered on that ground.

Ontario’s Court of Appeal said the trial judge had made an error in denying Jaser his preferred method of jury selection.

“The question here is not actual prejudice, which in these kinds of circumstances is impossible to gauge, but prejudice to the due administration of justice flowing from the denial of a jury selection method which was in law properly invoked,” it wrote.

As part of the jury selection process, prospective jurors may face questions regarding their ability to remain impartial.

Given the nature of the accusations against Jaser and Esseghaier, and the significant media attention leading up to the trial, this questioning was deemed necessary in this case, the appeal court said.

Prospective jurors were to be asked whether their ability to weigh the case based on the evidence would be affected by the fact that both accused are members of a visible minority and Muslim.

During this questioning, two people from the jury pool are given the role of “triers,” which means they consider the answer and determine whether there is sign of bias. Lawyers for both the Crown and the defence then decide whether to allow the person on the jury.

In a process called “rotating triers” — which is the default method — each newly appointed juror replaces one of the two triers so that the responsibility is shared.

While not laid out in the Criminal Code, common law granted the court the discretion to exclude from the room all other prospective jurors during this process or both prospective jurors and those already selected who were not currently acting as triers.

An alternative process known as “static triers” was created in the Criminal Code in 2008, allowing the accused to ask the court to exclude prospective and selected jurors during the questioning, as long as they could show it was necessary to ensure the jury remained impartial. If the court agreed, it would then choose two people — the static triers — to assess all the prospective jurors. Static triers do not get to serve on the jury.

Jaser had requested to have the jury chosen by rotating triers with any prospective jurors excluded from the room, but the trial judge said he no longer had the discretion to make that order, according to court documents.

What’s more, the judge said he would not have granted Jaser’s request even if he could, since the issue could be remedied by using static triers, which he then imposed even though Jaser had not formally applied to use them, the documents said.

There was debate at the time of the trial over whether judges retained the discretion to exclude prospective and some selected jurors when using rotating triers, but it has since been determined that they do, the appeal court said.

“It was an error of law for the trial judge to refuse to exercise a discretion based on a view that a remedy not sought by Jaser would have better achieved his ends,” the appeal court said.

Though Esseghaier, who largely chose not to participate in the trial proceedings, did not weigh in on the issue of jury selection at the time, he should also receive a new trial, the appeal court said Tuesday.

“Here, one jury was selected for both appellants. In the circumstances of this case, as the jury was not properly constituted for Jaser, it cannot be considered to have been properly constituted for Esseghaier,” the court said in a unanimous decision.

Several other verdicts have been overturned due to similar errors in recent years, including a conviction on two counts of second-degree murder for Christopher Husbands, the man who opened fire at Toronto’s Eaton Centre in 2012. Husbands also underwent a new trial and was found guilty of manslaughter earlier this year.

Jaser had also raised other grounds for appeal but the jury issue was heard first. Both men also previously indicated they wished to challenge their sentences, but the call for a new trial makes that unnecessary.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said in a statement it will proceed with a new trial, and noted it has 60 days to decide whether to seek leave to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Jaser and Esseghaier were arrested in April 2013 after a months-long investigation that involved an undercover FBI agent who gained their trust and secretly recorded hours of their conversations.

The two were recorded speaking about terror plots they would carry out in retaliation for Canada’s military actions in Muslim countries, including the planned derailment of a Via Rail train travelling between New York and Toronto.
The terror trial of accused ISIL recruiter Awso Peshdary is adjourned after three days of hearings in which the court hears testimony about the path to jihad allegedly taken by two of his associates, Ottawa students John Maguire and Khadar Khalib.