VANCOUVER — The head of an undercover terrorism investigation says it would have been important to know that a target of the operation feared he'd be killed for not following through on a mission to blow up the British Columbia legislature.
RCMP Staff Sgt. Vaz Kassam has testified that he doesn't recall being briefed that John Nuttall felt he'd lose his life for disobeying orders he thought were coming from al-Qaeda-affiliated operatives.
Kassam took over as leader of the police sting a week before Nuttall and his wife Amanda Korody were arrested on Canada Day in 2013 for plotting to detonate homemade pressure-cooker bombs in downtown Victoria.
B.C. Supreme Court has heard that Kassam suggested leaving a sales flyer for pressure cookers as a prop for Nuttall, though that plan was not carried out.
Kassam says it would have given him a better assessment of Nuttall's seriousness in carrying out a terrorist plot.
Nuttall and Korody were each found guilty of terrorism-related charges early last month, and their lawyers are now arguing that the RCMP entrapped the vulnerable couple.
