PAUL CHERRY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
More from Paul Cherry, Montreal Gazette

Published on: December 19, 2017 | Last Updated: December 19, Montrealers Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali were in their late teens and studying at Collège de Maisonneuve in Montreal when they were arrested in 2015. (Radio-Canada)

Jamali was found guilty of a reduced charge that the presiding judge in the trial, Justice Marc David, added as an option while he was instructing the jury. 

The 20-year-old was convicted of being in possession of an explosive substance but in a much less serious section of the Criminal Code. 

The charge carries only a maximum five-year sentence, which means Jamali has already served the equivalent of 48 months of the sentence. 

David ordered that both Djermane and Jamali be released in the case before him. But there are still issues to settle before the couple are released, including the possibility that the Crown will pursue imposing a peace bond on both. 

The evidence against Jamali, in terms of being in possession of an explosive substance, appeared to be clear-cut. The Crown presented evidence that he had purchased several items, at a Dollarama, that were part of the ingredients necessary to assemble a pressure cooker bomb similar to those used in the terrorist attacks on the Boston Marathon in 2013. Jamali had used his own debit card to purchase the items and left everything in one shopping bag that was found when INSET investigators searched his parents home.

It was more of a challenge for the Crown to convi‎ct Djermane on charges related to the pressure cooker bomb. A step-by-step guide to build the bomb was found on a nightstand in an apartment the couple had begun renting in March 2015. But other common household items that were part of the guide found inside the condo might have already been there when the couple arrived. They were arrested on April 14, 2015, after INSET investigated concerns from Djermane’s family that she was preparing to leave Canada to join ISIL in Syria.