The Crown alleged the couple believed they were working with authentic, terrorist connections, played by undercover officers, in order to access deadly explosives and carry out an attack.
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Bruce said Mounties involved in a months-long sting launched in early 2013 knowingly exploited Nuttall and Korody’s vulnerabilities to induce them to commit an offence.
“The world has enough terrorists”.
Police billed more than $900,000 in overtime conducting the investigation, according to a Canadian Press access to information request.
It was the first time in Canada that entrapment had been successfully used as defense in a case involving terrorism offenses.
A jury found Nuttall and Korody guilty a year ago of three terrorism-related charges.
However, those convictions were put on hold while their lawyers launched a lawsuit arguing that the Royal Mounted Canadian Police (RCMP) entrapped the couple and coaxed them into planning to plant the bombs, instead of the other more risky ideas the couple talked about.
Nuttall and Korody were recent converts to Islam.
BC Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce slammed the RCMP in her ruling, concluding that the force manipulated the pair. Canada’s federal prosecution service said it would review the decision in regard to an appeal.
“We don’t criminalize thought in our country”, Sandford said.
Korody’s lawyer, Mark Jette, described the ruling as a “powerful indictment” against the RCMP and said the next step will be helping the couple re-integrate into society.
He added that entrapment does “nothing to keep us safer, and actually fosters an environment of suspicion”.
Without the heavy-handed involvement of undercover officers, it would have been impossible for Nuttall and Korody to articulate, craft and execute a terrorist bomb plot, Bruce said.
A massive RCMP sting operation monitored and directed the couple.
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According to the report, the bar on entrapment under United States law is so high that it’s “almost impossible for a terrorism suspect to prove”.
