Prosecutors wanted a life sentence, but apparently that would have been “Islamophobic.”
Note how this news story and everyone quoted in it scrupulously avoids discussing why Abdulahi Hasan Sharif did this in the first place.
“Man who tried to kill Edmonton police officer sentenced to 28 years,” Canadian Press, December 13, 2019:
A man who tried to kill a police officer then mowed down four pedestrians in downtown Edmonton in what RCMP characterized as a terrorist attack was sentenced Friday to 28 years in prison.
Abdulahi Hasan Sharif was given an 18-year sentence for attempted murder for slamming his car into the officer, then stabbing him multiple times, in September 2017.
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Paul Belzil also handed Sharif four 10-year sentences for striking the pedestrians with a U-Haul truck.
Those concurrent sentences will be served after Sharif’s 18-year term for trying to kill Const. Michael Chernyk.
Outside the courthouse on Friday, Supt. Stacey Talbot, who runs the RCMP’s integrated national security enforcement team in Alberta, confirmed an ISIS flag was found in Sharif’s car and that police still believe it was a terrorist attack.
But, Talbot said, officials did not pursue terrorism charges because the other charges were deemed to have a better chance of conviction.
Deliberately targetedChernyk testified during the trial that he was on traffic duty outside an Edmonton Eskimos game when he was struck by a car. He next remembered a man on top of him, stabbing him in the head with a knife….
Crown prosecutors had argued that Sharif deserved a maximum life sentence for the targeted attack on the police officer, and 20 years to be served concurrently for fleeing from police and trying to kill the pedestrians….
“There is no evidence that he is remorseful for his attack,” the judge said….