Posted December 17, 2004.

Montreal School Library Firebomber Admits Guilt

Nineteen-year-old Sleiman Elmerhebi pleaded guilty to arson in a Monteal courtroom December 16 for the firebombing and destruction of the United Talmud Torahs school library in April. The act was an “emotional response,” he told the court. “I was reacting to acts of violence in the Middle East that I saw on television.” A note found at the scene of the crime claimed the bombing was linked to the March 22 killing of radical Islamist Sheik Ahmed Yassin by the Israeli military in Gaza.

In return for the plea, the judge dropped an additional charge of conspiracy, according to the December 17 Toronto Globe and Mail. Elmerhebi’s mother, Rouba Elmerhebi Fahd, still faces charges of acting as an accessory by trying to help her son flee to Brazil after the fire. The CTV television network reported that Elmerhebi’s arrest was prompted by police tracing the tanks of kerosene used in the arson to a store where the youth worked.

In the witness box, Elmerhebi read a letter asking for leniency: “I ask the Jewish community to grant me forgiveness for my mistake, for me and my conscience. It goes completely against the values of my religion, which prizes forgiveness, charity, and equality, and not terrorism.”

Posted December 17, 2004.