<div><p>The ring leader of a group of 18 alleged Islamic extremists accused of plotting to bomb Canada's main bourse and other targets was sentenced on Monday to life in prison.</p><p>Zakaria Amara, 24, received a life sentence "for his role in a terrorist plot to bomb Toronto," the Public Prosecution Service of Canada said in a statement.</p><p>He also he was sentenced to nine years "for his participation in a terrorist group," to be served concurrently.</p><p>The sentence is the stiffest punishment imposed in the conspiracy and under Canada's anti-terrorism laws, which parliament passed in the wake of 2001 attacks on the United States.</p><p>Amara may however be eligible for parole in less than seven years after having already served time in prison awaiting trial.</p><p>"What this case revealed was spine chilling," said Justice Bruce Durno in court, his remarks cited by The Globe and Mail newspapers.</p><p>"It cannot be said these things happen only in other countries," he said. "These things happen here."</p><p>Zakaria last week apologized to Canadians for his actions in an open letter he read in court.</p><p>"I deserve nothing less than your complete contempt," he said in his first public remarks.</p><p>The mastermind of an Al-Qaeda inspired plot to bomb the Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada's spy agency offices and a military base using fertilizer explosives packed in rented trucks said his interpretation of Islam was "naive and gullible."</p><p>But his outlook changed in the years he spent in prison awaiting trial, he said.</p><p>Amara, a Sunni Muslim, explained he befriended a Jewish inmate and a Shia Muslim who helped turn him around, as well as a banker who once worked in the Toronto Stock Exchange building.</p><p>"When someone shows me I'm wrong," he said, "I'm willing to accept it."</p><p>But Ontario Superior Court Justice Durno ruled Amara "did not just commit a criminal offence. He committed a terrorist offence that would have had catastrophic consequences. He did not serve as a foot soldier but as a leader."</p><p>Earlier, a co-conspirator Saad Gaya, 21, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the foiled 2006 bomb plot aimed at provoking a Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan.</p><p>Gaya pleaded guilty to the "terrorism" charges in September.</p><p>Another of the plotters is currently on trial while charges against seven others were dropped and five still face trial.</p><p>They were arrested during a police sting operation in 2006 and charged with participating in a "terrorist" group and attempting to "cause an explosion."</p><p>Specifically, they aimed to "acquire explosive substances and cause an explosion or explosions for religiously-inspired political purposes," said court documents in the Gaya case.</p><p>Members of the group allegedly sought to purchase three tonnes of the bomb-making ingredient ammonium nitrate from undercover police officers, who had switched it with an inert substance.</p><p>Gaya's motivation "was to pressure Canada into withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, the religious aspect being to protect a Muslim country from attack," said prosecutors.</p><p>His lawyer Paul Slansky told reporters after his sentencing: "Terrorism is a terrible and heinous crime but not everyone that commits a heinous and evil crime is themselves evil.</p><p>"I do believe that he was a misguided youth who made some seriously erroneous mistakes in deciding to trust these people who were themselves misguided," he said.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67210455&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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