Federal prosecutors have charged Ottawa software developer Momin Khawaja with five additional terrorism-related offences for his alleged part in an international terrorist conspiracy.

Justice Department officials confirmed yesterday that 25-year-old Mr. Khawaja, the only person to be charged under Canada's anti-terrorism legislation so far, will go straight to trial next year in what is sure to be a test of new laws introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

In addition to the five new charges, prosecutors have also expanded two existing terrorism charges against Mr. Khawaja.

Because the case will go straight to trial through a rarely used process called "direct indictment," a preliminary hearing scheduled for Jan. 9 will now be pre-empted by a Jan. 6 hearing to discuss, and possibly fix, a trial date.

Mr. Khawaja, the Canadian son of Pakistani-born immigrants, denies the terrorism charges. He has been in jail since his dramatic arrest in March last year while working as a contractor at the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, but will now be eligible to re-apply for the bail he has twice been denied.

The decision to go straight to trial has surprised Mr. Khawaja's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon.

Mr. Greenspon has spent the past year preparing for a preliminary inquiry, a usual process to test the evidence in a case before it goes to trial.

He says the preferring of direct indictments is an anachronism that should be scrapped.

"It's a power that is infrequently used and should not exist," he said. "The criminal justice system has within it a number of safeguards, including a preliminary hearing and to simply circumvent that is abusive of an accused person's rights. They are basically saying we are not going to bother with a preliminary inquiry so forget whatever rights you had, all bets are off. Whatever preparation you've done is gone."

Mr. Greenspon said prosecutors "dropped" seven bankers' boxes of evidence at his office earlier this month.

"I haven't even had a chance to go through all of that," he said. "We now have to completely change our approach."

He wouldn't speculate when the trial might start or whether Mr. Khawaja will re-apply for bail.

"I have to speak to Momin," he said. "We have to consider whether there is any realistic chance of him getting out in light of this change of approach. I don't want to waste time."

He confirmed Mr. Khawaja would plead not guilty.

The case has been subject to a ban that prohibits publication of all but the most basic facts related to Mr. Khawaja's arrest and continued imprisonment. Evidence presented by the prosecutor and defence, and the reasons for the judge denying bail, are covered by the ban, which the prosecution is expected to want at least partially enforced when the case goes to trial.

"It's difficult to speculate where this could go," said Justice Department spokesman Patrick Charette yesterday, "but yes, technically a total ban could be imposed (for security reasons). It's always up to the court to decide whether a ban would serve the proper administration of justice."

It's possible the trial could be held in secret, agreed Mr. Greenspon.

"This is the first actual charge under the act," he said, "so anything is possible. We're breaking new ground with every step."

The new charges come after nine months of continued investigation and apparent co-operation between the RCMP, and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and their counterparts in Britain and Pakistan. Shortly after Mr. Khawaja's arrest in March last year, London police charged five British men, all of Pakistani descent, with a variety of terrorist-related offences. Mr. Khawaja was named as a co-conspirator with the London group, but was not charged by British police.

In an allegedly related search days later, London police found a massive cache of ammonium nitrate fertilizer at a self-storage warehouse. The chemical is widely available and, when mixed with fuel oil, becomes a powerful explosive. It was used in the World Trade Center bombings in 1993, the Oklahoma City bombings two years later and in the Bali bombings in 2003.

Mr. Khawaja's family has confirmed he had visited London just weeks before his arrest. London police have described the Canadian as a mentor or ringleader in a London terrorist plot masterminded from Pakistan.

The new charges against Mr. Khawaja are all connected with the same London group and include allegations related to possession of explosives, participating or contributing to a terrorist group and helping to arrange financing to benefit a terrorist group.

Named in most of the charges with Mr. Khawaja is Omar Khyam, a Briton a couple of years Mr. Khawaja's junior and an athlete widely expected to become a professional cricketer and a possible member of the English national team.

As an 18-year-old, Mr. Khyam told his mother he was going on a study trip to France. Soon after, he called from Pakistan and was brought back to London after family members in Pakistan found him, and he settled into a computer software-related career.

Canada's new security law gives exceptional new powers to police and others to gather intelligence on terrorist suspects at home and establishes several new categories of crime, including those Mr. Khawaja is now charged with.

On the day they arrested Mr. Khawaja, police also detained and questioned the entire Khawaja family, including his mother who was grocery shopping, his brother and sister who were at home watching TV and his father, Mahboob, who was detained while working in Saudi Arabia. He was questioned by Saudi officials about whether he had ties to terrorism and phone conversations with his sons about bombs.

Police also raided the family home and took away computers and documents.

The elder Mr. Khawaja told the Citizen last year he had phone conversations with his sons, Qasim and Momin, but they involved a new business venture: introducing cellphone jammers to the Arabic world.