Two men had plotted to cut a hole in a railway bridge to derail the Canadian Via Rail passenger train between Toronto and New York, aiming to kill and injure dozens of people.
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Both men must serve 10 years before they are eligible for parole.
A court-appointed lawyer who was ordered to assist the self-represented Esseghaier through the legal process had asked Code to postpone sentencing until it could be determined if Esseghaier could be hospitalized and treated for a mental illness.
He isn’t optimistic either could be rehabilitated.In March, a jury found Jaser and Esseghaier guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in support of terrorism and participation in a terrorist group.
Jaser’s lawyer had argued mitigating factors in his client’s case included entrapment, segregation during pre-trial custody and drug addiction.
“I am satisfied that life imprisonment is the appropriate sentence”, Justice Michael Code said in handing down the sentences for plots “designed to result in indiscriminate killings”. “They’re risky individuals and that came through in the life sentences”.
Esseghaier received a second life sentence and an additional 18 years in prison, to be served concurrently with the life sentences, for participating in a terrorist group, conspiring to damage transportation property with the intent to endanger safety and other charges. Code rejected those arguments in delivering his sentence.
Two psychiatrists who assessed Esseghaier’s mental state over the course of his sentencing hearing found that he likely suffers from a mental illness. During the sentencing hearing, he began to share for the first time delusions about the time and date his soul will taken to heaven and his belief that the current date is prior to December 2014.
“My overall impressions of Mr. Jaser are that he is intelligent, devious and untrustworthy”, said Code.
Esseghaier was found guilty of all charges, while Jaser was convicted of all but one charge. The judge said they showed no remorse and little prospect for rehabilitation.
Esseghaier did not retain legal counsel, and the amicus assigned to him, Russell Silverstein, did not say whether an appeal would be launched on his behalf.
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According to the other media reports, the most important evidence in the case was some 25 hours of secretly recorded talks between the two men and an undercover FBI agent.
