VANCOUVER -- A British Columbia man who alleges he was entrapped by undercover Mounties begged for religious guidance months before he was to carry out an attack on the provincial legislature, a court has heard.

John Nuttall pleaded with an undercover officer posing as a jihadi extremist several times starting in May 2013 for a "brother" to answer his questions, including whether Islam permitted the killing of innocent people, B.C. Supreme Court heard Wednesday.

"I need spiritual guidance," he said in transcripts read in court. "This is my soul we're talking about, my wife's soul. If Allah thinks it's forbidden to kill civilians and doesn't accept my jihad, then I'm going to go to hellfire."

Nuttall and his wife Amanda Korody, both recent converts to Islam, were found guilty last month of planning to detonate homemade pressure-cooker bombs at the B.C. legislature on Canada Day in 2013.

The couple's lawyers are in court to argue they were manipulated -- that they feared they would be killed by officers posing as al-Qaida agents if they didn't follow through with a terrorist attack.

A Mountie responsible for training undercover officers to pass as jihadi extremists testified on Wednesday that the operation's commander emailed him in May 2013 to ask if he would pose as an imam.

RCMP Const. Tarek Mokdad said he called the commander, Sgt. Bill Kalkat, to refuse the request because he didn't have the skill to interpret the Qur'an the way a spiritual leader does.

"If you want me to play as a jihadist, sure. As an imam, no," Mokdad recalled saying.

In response to questions from Nuttall's lawyer, Marilyn Sandford, Mokdad said he now guessed the email was connected to Nuttall's pleas.

The undercover officer rebuffed Nuttall's repeated requests to talk to an imam. He told Nuttall in May 2013 that it was up to him to decide whether to follow through with his plan, which at that point involved a rocket attack.

"When it comes to that, it's your decision," the officer told him. "Just think, brother, do you want to go with this or not? ... If you don't want to do it, you tell me."

Later that spring, the officer began to mention a spiritual leader who he sometimes turned to for guidance. Despite Nuttall's appeals to speak with this "sheik," the Mountie never introduced him.

In late June, Kalkat invited Mokdad to assist with an operation in which a different undercover officer was posing as a powerful man who could provide Nuttall and Korody with C-4 explosives.

While the officer met with the couple in a Delta motel, Mokdad watched intermittently from a monitor room. He didn't provide any input except during a brief conversation outside with the Mountie.

"The atmosphere then was just, give them an out. Give them a way out," Mokdad testified. "I said if you do, to be realistic, just make sure he knows that you're afraid of the government.

"Just tell him, 'If the government comes knocking at your door, tell them we ain't never met.' ... I believe he used that line."

The trial has been adjourned until October.