14 DAY TRIAL // Officials in Canada have apprehended two people who were planning to place homemade explosive devices near a government building on the Canadian national holiday.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner James Malizia says in a statement relayed by ABC News that they meant to place the bombs in Victoria, British Columbia.
"I want to reassure our citizens that at all times during the investigation, our primary focus was the safety and protection of the public. [...] While the RCMP believes this threat was real, at no time was the security of the public at risk," Malizia says.
28-year-old Amanda Marie Korody and 38-year-old John Stewart Nuttall have been dubbed copycats to the Tsarnaev brothers.
They have been charged with "terrorism-related activities, including taking steps to build and subsequently place explosive devices at a pre-determined public location in the city of Victoria in British Columbia for the purpose of causing death or serious bodily injuries on Canada Day," Malizia describes.
"These individuals were inspired by al Qaeda ideology," he adds.
As it was in the case of the Boston bombers, no link to Islamic organizations has been reported.
The suspects used pressure cookers to build the explosive devices, but experts believe that they have not used the same plans, dubbing the choice as a convenient one.
"I think the pressure cookers would make you think [that this was a copycat case], but what came out in the Boston bombing is this stuff was openly available on the Internet," ex-Canadian intelligence officer Allan MacDougall explains to Global News.
"You’ll have a chemical reaction and because it’s contained in that pressure cooker, obviously the pressure builds up, builds up, builds up and then that steel container just shreds with that explosion," former counter-terrorism agent Mubin Shaikh adds.