The Montreal man whose charge of uttering threats is being treated as a terrorist offence for allegedly telling a homeless shelter worker that he understood how to make explosives, wanted to make bombs and then use them on public transit to kill a large number of people, was to make his next court appearance on Wednesday but was postponed to January.
Legal aid lawyer Vincent Petit, who is representing the 51-year old Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, had said that there is a realistic probability his client will plead guilty on Oct. 1 in front of the Court of Quebec.
On Wednesday, the court appearance was postponed to Jan. 8. No plea was entered today.
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Because the charge of uttering threats against Warsame is now being treated as a terrorist offence, the maximum punishment increases from five years to life in prison.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has revealed that Warsame, a Somali-born Canadian, attended lectures by Osama Bin Laden and spent 92 months in an American federal prison after pleading guilty in 2009 for providing material support to al-Qaida.
Warsame underwent a psychiatric evaluation at the Philippe-Pinel Psychiatric Institute to determine if he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of his alleged crime, but this report is not available to the public after it was put under seal at the request of the defence.
-With files from Gareth Madoc-Jones
