OTTAWA – A Canadian man accused of involvement in a plot to bomb British targets wanted to fight alongside insurgents in Afghanistan but never intended to bomb civilians in Britain, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Momin Khawaja, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, is accused of collaborating with a group of British Muslims, also of Pakistani descent, in a thwarted 2004 plan to bomb British buildings and natural gas grids.

Attorney Lawrence Greenspon presented a motion Tuesday demanding that terrorism charges against his client be dropped, arguing the prosecution hasn't produced enough evidence to substantiate the British bomb-plot allegations.

Greenspon told Ontario Superior Court there is evidence Khawaja trained to become a jihadi soldier so he could battle Western troops in Afghanistan.

He also acknowledged Khawaja, an Ottawa software developer, created a remote-control device for setting off explosives. But he insisted it was designed for use against military targets in Afghanistan – not for a homemade fertilizer bomb being constructed by others in Britain.

“There is no direct evidence that Momin Khawaja had any knowledge of the London fertilizer bomb plot,” Greenspon told Justice Douglas Rutherford, who is hearing the case without a jury.

Greenspon said the London plotters never let Khawaja in on their plans to mount attacks in Britain. A London court convicted five of the plotters last year and sentenced them to life in prison.

Khawaja faces seven charges under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act. He is accused of designing the bomb igniter, financing and facilitating terrorism, participating in terrorist training and meetings, and making a house owned by his family in Pakistan available for terrorist use. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Prosecutors have not yet responded.