The Crown has laid out its case against two young Montrealers accused of trying to leave Canada and join jihadi forces overseas in 2015.
Sabrina Djermane, 21, and El Mahdi Jamali, 20, are being tried on four charges:
• trying to leave Canada to commit a terrorist act overseas;
• facilitating a terrorist act;
• committing a terrorist act under the direction or for the profit of terrorist group;
• possessing an explosive substance.
Crown prosecutor Lyne Décarie said their 31 witnesses and evidence will show, among other things, that police found at the couple's condo and the Jamali family home:
• bomb-making instructions in Jamali's handwriting copied word for word from an Al Qaeda publication as well as bomb-making materials such as Christmas lights and sandpaper;
• Dollarama receipts for bomb-making materials paid with the credit card of the accused;
• receipts for passports in the names of the accused;
• a new suitcase with new clothes that still had sale tags on them
The Crown contends the pair applied for passports April 10, 2015, reserved plane tickets the next day and were planning to leave for Syria May 2.
Décarie said their last witness will be an expert on jihad, the fight against the enemies of Islam.
The prosecutor said the witness will testify about a video made by Ottawa native and jihadi convert John Maguire.
She said the video contained statements telling people to choose between immigration/integration to plan attacks here or to join the jihad overseas, to prepare suitcases or to prepare bombs, to buy plane tickets or to sharpen knives and to not be afraid of the blame that people will cast on them.
Décarie said the accused did just that.
The first of the 31 witnesses was an RCMP investigator for the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team.
The trial before Quebec Superior Court Justice Marc David is scheduled to last 10 weeks.