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Three Ottawa men were charged Tuesday by the RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement Team with taking part in activities related to financial and ideological support of IS, the jihadist group that controls large regions in Iraq and Syria.
Awso Peshdary is in police custody, faces four charges and is expected to appear in a bail court in Ottawa on Wednesday. He is facing charges of participating in, conspiring to participate in and facilitating the activity of a terrorist group.
John Maguire is charged with facilitating an activity for a terrorist group and conspiring to participate or to contribute in an activity of a terrorist group.
Khadar Khalib, 23, who is also believed to be overseas, is charged with leaving Canada to participate in, counselling a person to participate in and conspiring to participate, or to contribute in an activity of a terrorist group.
“These charges speak to our ability to tackle a threat that is multifaceted and constantly evolving,” assistant RCMP commissioner James Malizia said in a statement.
“Through collaborative efforts with our partners, we were able to disrupt an organized network associated with (ISIL). This network was involved in recruiting individuals for terrorism purposes and in sending them into Syria and Iraq for the benefit of this terrorist group.”
News of Peshdary’s arrest was released at a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday afternoon.
Despite reports that Maguire had been killed in fighting in the middle east, RCMP say they have no information to substantiate those reports.
Peshdary’s defence lawyer Richard Morris slammed the RCMP’s disclosure, saying they revealed more information to the press than they did to him.
He said he received a phone call that his client had been arrested and was read four charges over the phone but given no other information about the case.
“I asked them is there anything else you can tell me and they said no. Twenty minutes later I get a call for a colleague saying there’s going to be a press conference,” Morris told Metro. “It seems to me they are more interested in spinning this to the public than guaranteeing the constitutional rights of my client.”
Morris said he tried to attend the press conference, but was barred from entering by the RCMP.
“They told me they it was a media event and were not admitting the public,” said Morris.
Morris said this is the second time he’s seen police disclose more to the public than they did to defence lawyers.
When Ottawa twins Ashton Carleton Larmond and Carlos Honor Larmond, 24, were arrested, Morris said he got the initial call, before handing the case over to Joseph Addelman. Morris said that in that instance, police again said they had nothing more to say about the charges and then spilled more details at a press conference.
Peshdary was previously swept up in a separate national security investigation in August 2010 and was among four men arrested in connection with an alleged terror cell probe.
He was ultimately released on bail and never charged in that case with anything terror related, although he was charged with domestic assault — later being acquitted.
RCMP arrested Peshdary Aug. 27 after having bugged his apartment for several months as part of the so-called ‘Project Samosa’ homegrown terrorism investigation that led to the arrest of Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh, 30, Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, and Dr. Khurram Syed Sher, 28, in London, Ont.
Sher was found not guilty after a trial last year and Alizadeh pleaded guilty in September, receiving a 24-year sentence. Ahmed was found guilty after a trial and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Agencies/Canadajournal
