Ranks close for young jailed Muslim

Saad Gaya, one of the ever-diminishing Toronto 18 terror suspects, was up for a bail hearing yesterday and so most of his relatives – plus many people who have previously never laid eyes on him – trooped out to Brampton to wish him well. It's a tense time for the family of the 20-year-old McMaster University student. Gaya has been in jail since June 2006, when police swooped in and arrested 17 young, Toronto-area Muslim men and boys (the 18th was picked up a few weeks later) on terror charges. Like the other adults arrested, Gaya spent more than a year in solitary confinement. His father, Hussain, says he worries what that experience has done to Saad. But the Crown has made no excuses for coming down heavily on the 18, alleging initially that all were engaged in terrorist acts and that some – including Gaya – were planning to use explosives against an unspecified target. Ranks close for young jailed Muslim - Thomas Walkom