Threat of Allah's disappointment not used to control accused terrorist, says cop
VANCOUVER - An undercover police officer has denied he used the threat of disappointing Allah and disrespecting radical Islamists to frighten an accused B.C. man into concocting a viable plan for jihad.
John Nuttall's defence lawyer accused the officer of suggesting the recently converted Muslim violated his faith by committing the sin of wasting money spent to help him craft his plot.
"You were conveying the message he was disrespecting a whole bunch of terrorists," Marilyn Sandford told the officer in front of a B.C. Supreme Court jury on Thursday.
Wasting money is haram, or forbidden, in Islam, the trial heard.
"You said to him, 'Do you know how many brothers are working for that money?'" she said, adding that the officer, whose identity is protected, brought Allah into the picture as yet another party unhappy with Nuttall.
"Yes, but there was a reason for that," replied the officer, who is the Crown's key witness. "I had direction I had to follow."
Nuttall and his wife Amanda Korody have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to detonate homemade pressure-cooker bombs on the B.C. legislature grounds on Canada Day 2013.
In court on Thursday, the jury watched video taken in June 2013 of the undercover officer driving the couple back to the Lower Mainland from a three-day visit to Kelowna, B.C., where he had promised they would be able to work on their terrorist plot away from distraction.
The officer confronted Nuttall at the end of the trip, saying others were trusting him with their money and he didn't think Nuttall was fully invested in the plot.
"That makes me feel horrible to hear you say that," Nuttall replied.
In another video, Nuttall proposed detonating pressure-cooker bombs in the washroom of a Victoria strip club as a distraction from his main target.
"It was my second home when I was an (infidel)," he said of Monty's Showroom Pub in the city's downtown. "The only girls who are going to be killed are hookers."
Korody agreed, adding that "the only reason a woman is going to be killed in a men's washroom is if she's turning a trick."
Another video shows Nuttall pacing a hotel room and growing excited when Korody suggests they plant the strip club bombs in the drained water tank of a toilet.
"She's evil," he yelled, describing her idea as brilliant.
"What did I tell you, brother?" he asked the undercover officer, who was posing as an Arab businessman.
"She's the rock upon which I stand," he added, as the undercover agent commended the plan.
Nuttall later told the officer that an accomplice had convinced him to forego his original plan to fire off homemade rockets and instead to use pressure-cooker bombs, for reasons of convenience and speed. The trial has heard that accomplice was another undercover officer.
Nuttall and Korody have previously said they see themselves as caught up in a war between the western world and Islam.
Nuttall said he believes Allah allowed him to be born in Canada in order to wage jihad behind enemy lines.
— Follow @gwomand on Twitter
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