The fate of a Surrey couple accused of planting pressure cooker bombs at the B.C. legislature on Canada Day in 2013 is in the hands of a jury this week, following the end of the lengthy trial last week.
The 12-person jury began deliberations at 9 a.m. Sunday (May 31).
The trial of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody began in February and during proceedings the jury has seen and heard 100-plus hours of undercover video and audio evidence – part of a months-long sting operation by the RCMP.
Police officers posing as terrorists – one an Arab businessman sympathetic to Islamic extremism and a second who had access to explosives and weapons – befriended the pair several months before the alleged plot to bomb the Victoria government buildings.
Video showed the pair making plans and praising the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, as well as purchasing materials and constructing bombs in a Delta hotel room.
Defence lawyers for Nuttall and Korody argued the RCMP officers manipulated the former heroin addicts with money, clothes and spiritual guidance.
Crown prosecutors contended the couple, who were recent converts to the Muslim faith, was aware what they were doing and intended to kill and injure hundreds of innocent people.
The bombs were placed in planters outside the legislature, but police ensured they did not detonate. Nuttall and Korody were arrested at a hotel in Abbotsford July 1, 2013.
The couple is charged with making or possessing an explosive device, conspiracy to place an explosive device with the intent to cause death or injury, and conspiring to commit murder. They have pleaded not guilty.
In May, Justice Catherine Bruce told the jury that due to legal reasons, they were not required to make a decision on a fourth charge – facilitating a terrorist act.
