Canada couple freed in terror entrapment case swiftly rearrested

VANCOUVER A Canadian judge freed a couple found guilty of planting homemade bombs at a crowded Canada Day holiday party in 2013, saying on Friday the "unsophisticated" pair were entrapped by police who themselves broke the law in their sting operation.


British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce said police manipulated the couple into carrying out a plot that they did not have the mental capacity to plan on their own.


It was the first time in Canada that entrapment had been successfully used as defense in a case involving terrorism offenses.


John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were arrested in 2013, hours after they dropped off homemade pressure cooker bombs filled with nuts, bolts and rusty nails on the steps of the legislature in Victoria, the provincial capital, ahead of national day celebrations.


The couple was found guilty of numerous terrorism-related charges last year, after a months-long undercover sting operation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Their conviction was not registered as defense lawyers argued that police had entrapped their clients.


The argument hinged on the fact that an undercover officer befriended the couple, encouraging them to drop more "grandiose" terror plot ideas to focus on explosive pressure cookers, actively removing all obstacles to ensure the plan went ahead.


The pair was also led to believe that if they backed out of the plan, they would be killed, according to the ruling.


Bruce stayed proceedings against the two, calling them "foot soldiers" in a plot led by an undercover police officer.


"The world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more out of marginalized people," she said.


Canadian prosecutors, who are appealing the ruling, had argued police acted in an "innovative and effective" way. The RCMP said on Friday that guarding against national security threats remained a priority.


Three previous attempts to claim entrapment in terrorism proceedings have failed, including two tied to a 2006 Toronto plot to attack federal buildings and behead then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper.


Nuttall and Korody are Canadian-born citizens who lived on government support in a basement apartment in a Vancouver suburb. The pair had addiction problems, according to court documents, with Nuttall describing himself as a self-styled "Muslim Punk" on his website and writing songs about his love for Satan.


(Reporting by Julie Gordon; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Jeffrey Hodgson)