Hisham Saadi, the graduate student who tried to get out of an exam by issuing bomb threats that forced Concordia University to evacuate three buildings last year, was convicted of a terror-related charge at the Montreal courthouse on Thursday.
Quebec Court Judge Mélanie Hébert convicted Saadi, 48, of having committed acts that, considering the context, were susceptible to causing fear that terrorist acts were about to be committed. The decision came just minutes after defence lawyer Caroline Braun announced she would not present a defence. Hébert said she had “all the essential elements” to convict Saadi.
The judge placed a conditional stay of proceedings on the two lesser charges Saadi faced — uttering threats and mischief — because they became redundant when she found him guilty of causing people to fear that terrorists had placed bombs inside university buildings. The maximum sentence for the offence is five years.
The trial quickly became a matter of technicalities on Thursday after Braun apparently ran out of options when she failed in a bid to argue that a provincial prosecutor alone didn’t have the authority to sign off on the terror-related charge. Hébert ruled from the bench that Braun was wrong and her decision set off a chain of events that quickly resulted in Saadi’s conviction.
It took prosecutor François Allard less than five minutes to make his closing arguments. He said Saadi had admitted everything the prosecution was required to prove during his trial, including that he was the person who wrote the emails sent to media outlets. What he wrote caused Concordia University to evacuate three of its buildings on March 1, 2017.
As part of a series of admissions made during his trial in February, Saadi admitted he was the person who wrote the letters. Both Allard and Hébert cited the admission as the key to convicting Saadi.
“Until Concordia University stops religious activities of all kinds on campus (…)” the letters read, “we will detonate once per day small artisanal explosive devices that we planted on two floors.” The letters were sent to various media outlets in Montreal. The Montreal police searched the university’s buildings but found no trace of explosives. Within hours, investigators watched a video recording of Saadi while he sat inside a Tim Horton’s next to one of the university’s buildings and sent the letters by email using a laptop. The investigation also led police to Saadi’s apartment on Darlington Ave. in the Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, after tracing the IP address associated with the email account he used to send the letters.
Braun tried a series of options in an effort to avoid seeing her client convicted. While the trial was well underway she asked Hébert to order a month-long mental health evaluation at the Philippe Pinel Institute. Braun apparently did not get the evaluation she was hoping for as a report that was prepared for her was never placed into evidence. She also tried to have a statement Saadi gave to the police declared inadmissible. That option involved having Saadi testify, which he did, on Feb. 6.
He told Hébert he made the threats because he feared what would happen if he failed an important microeconomics exam. He also said he was taking antipsychotic and antidepressant medication at the time.
“I’m sorry for what happened,” Saadi told a couple of reporters on Thursday after he was convicted. “If I could have the chance to travel back in time and erase it, I would.”
Sentencing arguments are scheduled to begin in September. Saadi is also awaiting his sentence for having violated one of his bail conditions while his case was pending.
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