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Momin Khawaja is a dangerous zealot who supplied equipment and financing to Islamic extremists with deadly intent, says the chief federal prosecutor at his trial.

“What he actually did was set himself up as a quartermaster of terrorism,” Crown attorney David McKercher declared Wednesday.

Mr. Khawaja faces seven charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act, including a key contention that he built a remote-control device, dubbed the Hi-Fi Digimonster, for use by a British group planning bomb attacks in and around London.

His alleged co-conspirators – five of whom were convicted by a London jury last year – hadn't selected final targets when police and security officers broke up their plot. But they were considering attacks on a nightclub, shopping centre and gas and electric facilities.

Had the plan come to fruition it would have resulted in “disastrously” extensive loss of life and damage to property, Mr. McKercher said.

Using some of the strongest language he's employed since the trial began, the federal lawyer painted Mr. Khawaja as a “zealot with deadly intentions.”

The Crown has acknowledged that the Ottawa software designer didn't know all the details of the British plot. But that doesn't make him any less guilty, Mr. McKercher told Mr. Justice Douglas Rutherford, who is hearing the case without a jury.

“Momin Khawaja was prepared to provide and metaphorically pull the trigger of a very powerful weapon,” Mr. McKercher said.

Aside from the British bomb plot, Mr. Khawaja faces charges that he facilitated and financed terrorism by acting as a courier for money and supplies destined for al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan, and by funnelling cash to colleagues in Britain through a bank account set up in Ottawa.

He is also accused of taking terrorist training at a camp in Pakistan, and of making a house owned by his family in Pakistan available for terrorist use.

The range of charges, Mr. McKercher said, reflects the fact that “Momin Khawaja's commitment to violent jihad was all-consuming and not one-dimensional.”

Defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon has maintained the London plotters kept Mr. Khawaja in the dark about their intentions to mount attacks in Britain.

He says his client's only intent was to join Taliban insurgents and fight as a “front-line jihadi soldier” against Western forces in Afghanistan. Mr. Khawaja thought the Digimonster would be used in bomb attacks against military targets there, Mr. Greenspon said.

The defence lawyer has also accused the Crown of shifting its focus in the middle of the case to raise the spectre of worldwide jihad because it can't tie Mr. Khawaja conclusively to the British bomb plot.

Mr. McKercher dismissed that argument yesterday as a sleight of hand in which Mr. Greenspon has shuffled the walnut shells to conceal the truth that lies beneath. The Crown attorney said it has been apparent from the start that the case against Mr. Khawaja doesn't rest entirely on the British plot and that Mr. Greenspon knows it.

“For him to pretend to be surprised or caught off-guard … is disingenuous in the extreme.”

There's strong evidence Mr. Khawaja knew that bombings were planned for Britain, Mr. McKercher said. But even if he was aiming at Afghan targets – which could have included Canadian troops – the Crown maintains he's still guilty of a terrorist offence.

Judge Rutherford is considering a defence motion to quash the charges against Mr. Khawaja on grounds that the Crown hasn't produced enough evidence to sustain them.

Prosecutors are urging him to reject the motion. If the judge does so, it will force Mr. Greenspon to continue with his defence case and decide whether to call Mr. Khawaja as a witness on his own behalf – a move that would open him to cross-examination by the prosecution.

Arguments on the motion to quash are scheduled to conclude Friday after which Judge Rutherford will likely take several days before delivering a ruling.