‘Yes I sent bombs, but no I’m not guilty’

NATIONALPOST… A man accused of almost a dozen attempted murders denied the charges today, but admitted to sending tainted water and explosive devices to a variety of people in Toronto and Guelph between 2004 and 2007.
Adel Arnaout, 39, told a Superior Court judge he did this to “scare” several of the recipients and to confuse police.
“I was frustrated with them,” the accused said of police, noting his primary objective was “to waste their time and money like they wasted my time and money.”
Mr. Arnaout’s frustration with police apparently stemmed from a number of run-ins in which he believed authorities failed to help him; at one point he called police about a “bullying” roommate, while another time he lodged a complaint about a talent agent who took his money but did not find him work.
Police “said they didn’t have time” to help, Mr. Arnaout testified.
Probed about the contents of the tainted water — the accused sent out four cases in 2004 to talent agencies, a judge and a bank — Mr. Arnaout said he injected a foul-smelling painkiller through the lids, knowing this would spur recipients to call police.
(The court has previously heard the water contained dimethyl sulfide, a posionous industrial solvent.)
Mr. Arnaout held a grudge against one of the talent agencies and against the CIBC bank over a credit dispute, but was on fine terms with the other recipients, he said.
“I wanted to confuse the police,” the accused testified under questioning by defence laywer Richard Stern.
He cited similar motives for sending out several explosive packages in 2007, noting two of them were designed with faulty igniters and thus posed no real harm.
Mr. Arnaout, clad in a dark suit and blue blouse, spoke quickly and quietly in a halting Lebanese accent.
His testimony resumes this afternoon.
National Post