VANCOUVER - British Columbia's Appeal Court has upheld a decision that found a couple accused of plotting to blow up the provincial legislature was entrapped by the RCMP.
In a ruling released Wednesday, Justice Elizabeth Bennett wrote that while the trial judge made some errors, she did not err in finding that John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were manipulated by the Mounties.
“I therefore agree with the trial judge that the overall conduct of this investigation was a travesty of justice,” Bennett wrote in her ruling.
Bennett ordered a stay of proceedings.
The Crown argued at an appeal hearing in January that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce had no basis to conclude the RCMP manipulated Nuttall and Korody into planting explosive devices around the legislature.
In June 2015, a jury found Nuttall and Korody guilty of conspiring to commit murder, possessing an explosive substance and placing an explosive in a public place on behalf of a terrorist group.
The convictions were put on hold until 2016 when Bruce ruled the two had been entrapped by police, who she said used trickery, deceit and veiled threats to engineer the bomb plot.
In its appeal, the Crown argued that Nuttall and Korody were responsible for crafting and carrying out the plan and that an undercover RCMP operation did not qualify as either manipulative or an abuse of process.
Documents filed by the Crown said Nuttall and Korody eagerly conspired to build improvised explosive devices and detonate them as an act of jihad to strike terror in the hearts of “Canadian infidels.”
Lawyers for Nuttall and Korody said there was no reason to reverse the stays of proceedings. The defence argued that the couple feared they would be killed by the shadowy terrorist group if they didn't follow through with the bomb plot.
Documents filed by the defence said police provided Nuttall with improper spiritual advice that deflected his qualms about whether terrorism was compatible with his new faith after the couple converted to Islam.
Nuttall and Korody were arrested on Canada Day 2013 after planting what they thought were pressure-cooker bombs at the legislature.
Defence lawyers have argued that the RCMP acted on unreasonable suspicions to exploit two vulnerable people, steering them towards a manufactured crime that was planned, prepared and all but carried out by police. The trial heard that Nuttall's substance abuse and mental health played a role in the entrapment.
