Expert weighs in on US terrorism case involving a Canadian

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A Canadian man who pleaded guilty to terrorist-related charges in the United States is scheduled to be sentenced this December.

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy was arrested and is one of three accused in connection with what authorities call an ISIS-inspired plot to target landmarks in New York more than a year ago.

NEWS 1130 Legal Analyst Michael Shapray explains Canadians are tried in the US if the offence was committed there and the person was arrested on US soil.

“The issue really is going to be sentencing in the United States courts. Ultimately… now that he’s plead guilty and he’s going to be sentenced, he would be returned to Canada at the end of his sentence.”

Shapray says the Ontario man could apply to have some of his sentence served back in Canada –there is a treaty that allows him to do that– but that is a process that would take place down the road.

“I’ve certainly had clients over the years who have wanted to return to Canada to serve their sentence because they might get paroled earlier or because of the nature of our corrections jails, that they would rather be in a Canadian jail than an American jail.”

The Vancouver-based criminal lawyer says he finds the way the case was revealed and the fact El Bahnasawy was arrested over a year ago to be a little unusual.

“Certainly it’s a different type of system there in a sense that it sounds like this gentleman was arrested a year ago and they sealed all aspects of that,” he says. “It would be quite unusual that we wouldn’t hear anything about an arrest or anything like that for this period of time. But I guess because it’s a terrorism-related offence and they have some laws that are geared directly towards that, that was what they were working within the confines of.”

The arrests were first announced on Friday following the court’s unsealing of federal terrorism charges.

The other two accused are identified as Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old US citizen residing in Pakistan, and Russell Salic, 37, from the Philippines.

Investigators say the terror plots included plans to target landmarks in New York City like Times Square and the city’s subway system.

The charges against El Bahnasawy include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, both of which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.