Doctor arrested in terror plot gets bail under strict conditions

OTTAWA—A London, Ont., doctor charged with conspiracy to facilitate terrorism walked free on bail Wednesday.

Khurram Syed Sher, who once auditioned for the “Canadian Idol” TV show, was released on strict conditions.

Among them, he must live with Toronto-area relatives who posted bonds totalling $183,000, and must report to the RCMP weekly.

The 28-year-old Sher sat quietly through the proceeding, glancing occasionally at relatives clustered in the front rows of the courtroom. In court, he was tieless, in an open-necked dress shirt and dark suit, but by the time he left the court building, he had donned a smartly knotted tie.

Details of the bail proceedings are under a publication ban.

Sher was charged in late August along with Ottawa residents Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, and Hiva Alizadeh, 30.

Ahmed was released on bail last month, but the Crown is appealing that decision. Alizadeh has yet to have a bail hearing.

Anser Farooq, Sher’s lawyer, said he hopes the Crown doesn’t appeal his client’s bail.

“It would not be an appropriate position,” he said.

Farooq said he wants the Crown to go over the case carefully before deciding to go to trial.

“I would certainly hope that they are going to review this case thoroughly before subjecting an individual to this lengthy and very troublesome prosecution,” he said.

The lawyer said he hopes the case doesn’t get to trial at all.

“We hoping that the charges against my client are eventually stayed.”

The three men were charged after police seized terrorist literature, videos, manuals and dozens of electronic circuit boards allegedly designed to detonate homemade bombs.

Police said they had uncovered a plot that stretched from the suburbs of Ottawa to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sher is a doctor of pathology and a graduate of McGill University in Montreal. Ahmed was an X-ray technician at an Ottawa hospital. Alizadeh studied electrical engineering technology in Winnipeg.

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