Jamal Akal (جمال عكل) was a

Canadian citizen Canadian nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of Canada. The primary law governing these regulations is the Citizenship Act, which came into force on February 15, 1977 and is applicable to all provinces and t ...

arrested by Israeli security forces in 2003, and accused of conspiring with

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

leaders to target and assassinate an Israeli politician travelling to the United States.Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Hamas-trained terrorist, Canadian national, arrested by ISA
December 8, 2003

Life

Akal moved to Canada in 1999 and obtained Canadian citizenship. In 2003 he left

Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...

and returned to Palestine to look for a wife, and became acquainted with Mohammed Bashir Abut Matar, who urged him to avenge the death of his cousin at Israeli military hands.

Arrest and sentencing

Akal was arrested November 1, 2003, several days after arriving in the

Gaza strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. His lawyer Jamil al-Qatib complained that any information stemming from his 20-hour-a-day interrogations over a period of two weeks was useless.Amichai, Rami. Erez Crossing
Israel remands Canadian in alleged attack plot
December 16, 2003

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

article
/ref> Pleading guilty on November 24, he said that he had been counseled by Ahmed Wahabe to follow an unnamed Israeli politician touring the United States, and raise funds in North American mosques to purchase an

M16 rifle The M16 (officially Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of assault rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States Armed Forces, United States military. The original M16 was a 5.56×45mm NATO, 5.56×45mm automatic ...

with which to launch a

sniper A sniper is a military or paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with telescopic si ...

attack, killing the target. NEFA Foundation
Target America: Analysis of the Jamal Akal case
, July 2007 He also claimed that he had been told to attribute the attack to

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

, rather than

; while Hamas denied any knowledge of Akal, stating that they limited all their actions to the Palestinian region. Akal was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by the

military court A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the arme ...

, and was released back to Canada in August 2007.

References

Hamas members Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-crime-bio-stub