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Acquitted on terror charges

A British Columbia man accused of using his Facebook account to express support of "lone wolf" terrorist attacks has been acquitted of all charges.

Othman Hamdan's judge-alone trial began in June, when he pleaded not guilty to encouraging the commission of murder, assault and mischief as well as inducing and instructing someone to carry out a terrorist act.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Butler announced his decision on Friday, and it was confirmed by the criminal registry Monday. The alleged offences were related to 85 Facebook posts between September 2014 and July 2015, when Hamdan was arrested.

The Fort St. John resident who described himself as a non-practising Sunni Muslim testified his posts highlighted government clashes against citizens who were "squashed" as they held peaceful protests during the Arab spring in the Middle East.

Hamdan said he began posting comments on his Facebook profile and created some pages based initially on what he saw on social media, which played a big role in the series of demonstrations that swept through the Arab world.

"Lone wolves, we salute you," read one post on March 3, 2015, as read in court by Crown counsel.

Another post in October 2014 calls Martin Couture-Rouleau, who rammed a car into Canadian soldiers in Quebec, "the real hero for hitting evil Canadian forces on their soil in retaliation for the Canadians supporting the Shiite gangs in Iraq."



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