Canadian jury finds man guilty in Christmas lights bomb case

MONTREAL - 20 December 2017: A Canadian jury on Tuesday found a man guilty of possessing an explosive substance and acquitted his partner of all charges in a case in which the government alleged they were trying to build a bomb with ingredients that included Christmas lights.

The Montreal couple, El Mahdi Jamali and Sabrine Djermane, were charged with trying to leave Canada to join a terrorist group, possessing an explosive substance, facilitating a terrorist activity and committing an offense for a terrorist group.

They have been detained since they were arrested in 2015, when they were teenagers.

Jamali, now 20, was found guilty of explosives possession and acquitted on other charges. He faces up to five years in prison.

Djermane, 21, was acquitted of all charges.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found a handwritten bomb-making recipe copied from a propaganda magazine published by al Qaeda militants when the police searched a condo rented by the couple in 2015, according to prosecutors.

The two were arrested at a time when international security forces reported that college students from Montreal were among waves of young people heading to Syria to join Islamic State militants.

RCMP began investigating the couple after receiving a tip, and arrested them days later.