TORONTO -- One of four Toronto men charged in an aborted plot to assassinate South Korean President Chun Doo-Hwan was released on bail Monday.
Alexander Michael Gerol, 33, was ordered released on a $75,000 surety bond by Ontario Supreme Court Justice M. A. Catzman. His lawyer, Alan Gold, said the surety was posted by Gerol's wife.
At Gold's request, Catzman imposed a publication ban on evidence presented at the bail hearing, including a list of 16 names provided to the court by crown attorney Robert MacDonald. Gerol was granted bail on the condition he not associate with any of the people on the list.
Gerol was arrested Feb. 24 by a task force of officers from the Royal Canadian Mounted, Ontario provincial and Toronto police forces and charged with conspiring with two other men to kill the South Korean president.
He was also charged with conspiring to defraud one of the alleged plotters, Jung Hwa Choi, 31 -- also known as James Choi -- and with possessing money derived from the murder and fraud conspiracies.
Charles Stephen Yanover, 36, arrested the same day, was being held on similar charges.
Nathan Israel Klegerman, 52, was charged with four counts of possessing money derived from the murder and fraud conspiracies.
Gerol was scheduled to appear in Provincial Court Thursday to have a date set for trial.
Yanover will appear in Ontario Supreme Court March 8 for a bail hearing.
Choi, a South Korean-born Canadian citizen, was believed to have travelled to North Korea. Klegerman also was believed to have left the country.
Police said a number of North Koreans attempted to hire several Canadians to kill President Chun but the intended assassins decided to take the money and not carry out their part of the bargain.
Police, who investigated the case for six months and enlisted aid from authorities in the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia, seized $68,000 in raids on several Toronto homes.
