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‘The defendant noted that he had suggested an alternative plot — contaminating the air or water with bacteria in order to kill up to 100,000 people’

“The defendant also proposed that they help Muslims fighting in Syria by sending money or weapons. He also stated that he wanted to remain in the United States, and that if he was living in the United States he would be willing to carry out terrorist operations in the United States, but that he would have to know more details regarding any proposed plot.”

The arrest of a third suspect in New York had already been reported by the National Post, but U.S. authorities had kept quiet about it while members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force questioned Mr. Abassi almost daily for more than a week.

The interrogations ended on April 29 and on May 2, a grand jury indicted Mr. Abassi on two counts alleging he had fraudulently applied for a U.S. work visa to facilitate an act of international terrorism. He faces up to 25 years of imprisonment for each count.

“As alleged, Mr. Abassi came to the United States to pursue terrorist activity and support others in the same shameful pursuit,” said George Venizelos of the FBI New York field office. “What Mr. Abassi didn’t know was that one of his associates, privy to the details of his plan, was an undercover FBI agent.”

Officials at Université Laval in Quebec City, where Mr. Abassi was a master’s student in chemical engineering, said they were forbidden by privacy law from discussing his time there as a student. Spokesman Jean-François Huppé said university personnel had been instructed not to discuss the matter.

One person who briefly worked in a laboratory with Mr. Abassi described him as “a normal guy” who never talked about terrorism. Mr. Abassi was co-author of a paper with Laval colleagues in the December 2012 edition of the scientific journal Applied Catalysis.

He was the lead author on a paper presented this week in a session on “Green Chemistry and Catalysis” at the annual conference of ACFAS, an association promoting scientific research in francophone Canada.

Mr. Esseghaier and Mr. Jaser have been held in custody since their arrests. They are scheduled for court appearances in Toronto in two weeks. Meanwhile, a review of their immigration files was to be handed this week to Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

The minister ordered the review after learning both men had been granted permanent resident status in Canada in the past year. Mr. Jaser, a Palestinian born in the United Arab Emirates, had received immigrant status in Canada after being pardoned for fraud and threat convictions.

National Post, with files from Jake Edmiston