Jahmaal James pleaded guilty on Friday to having gone to Pakistan to obtain paramilitary training for the benefit of the so-called Toronto 18 and was to be set free after being sentenced to time served.

The now 26-year-old admitted in a Brampton court that he was part of a terrorist group that intended to cause violent jihad.

After entering his plea of guilt, the Scarborough man, who has been in pre-trial custody since June 2006, was sentenced by Justice Bruce Durno to seven years and credited with time served.

As part of a joint submission, the judge imposed a three-year probation period, a lifetime weapons prohibition and ordered James to provide a DNA sample.

James, who converted from Christianity to Islam, chose not to address the near-empty court.

Defence lawyer Donald McLeod later told reporters that his client is looking forward to getting on with his life.

"This was a very hard, arduous and difficult time for him but I think now he can look forward to sort of doing things differently," said McLeod.

He explained his client's attraction to the group as a "blunder, a misstep in his 20s," and described James as a "smart young man who has a lot going for him."

According to an agreed statement of fact, James travelled from Toronto to Lahore on Nov. 5, 2005, to obtain paramilitary training at a camp in Waziristan.

Crown prosecutor Jason Wakely told the court that James planned to use that training to benefit the Toronto group.

James believed that once he arrived overseas, Aabid Khan, a British resident known as "Mr. Fix-It," would help him gain admission to one of the training camps in Pakistan.

While there, James made several attempts to meet up with Khan, also known as Abu Omar, but became seriously ill.

"This disrupted his plan," Wakely told the judge. "The Crown does not allege that James actually received paramilitary training."

When James returned to Toronto, on March 22, 2006, he became disgruntled with the reckless manner in which the Toronto group was being led and eventually pulled away because he feared the authorities were onto them.

Defence lawyer McLeod told the court that there was also an "ideological shift" in his client, which explains why James distanced himself from those with extremist views.

Outside court, McLeod said that after James returned from Pakistan he delved deeper into Islam and gained a deeper understanding of it.

"He still embraces the religion," McLeod said of his client. "But he realizes he may have aligned himself with a portion that was not really to his liking and that's what he disengaged from."

James was among 18 people charged with terrorism offences in the summer of 2006.

Six have pleaded guilty, two have been found guilty and seven had their charges stayed. Three men still face trial.

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Khan, meanwhile, is serving a 12-year sentence in Britain after being found guilty in August 2008 of terror-related offences.

According to testimony heard during his London trial, Khan travelled often, including to Toronto, where he met with like-minded extremists he had met online and incited them to fight.

He intended to rent an apartment for recruits on their way to Pakistan's paramilitary training camps and talked about a "worldwide battle."

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