Long-delayed Peshdary trial finally begins
The terrorism trial of Ottawa’s Awso Peshdary, alleged Islamic State recruiter and financier, is finally underway after years of legal and law enforcement delays.
Peshdary was formally arraigned Monday in an Ottawa courtroom on charges of participating in the activity of a terrorist group, facilitating an activity for a terrorist group, and two counts of conspiring to participate or contribute to an activity of a terrorist group with local men John Maguire and Khadar Khalib — both of whom are presumed dead.
Peshdary has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The family of John Maguire, alleged by prosecutors to have been the star recruit of Peshdary, testified Monday, painting the picture of a fallen son who went from being a parent’s dream to depressed loner to a radicalized Muslim convert who left for Syria without telling any of them, only to be presumed killed near the Turkish-Syrian border in 2015.
Maguire grew up in Kemptville and after an ISIL propaganda video starring the white-skinned Canadian was broadcast through ISIL channels, he became a face of homegrown terrorism exported to the Middle East, never to be seen again.
Christopher Maguire, John’s cousin but more like a brother, told the court that Peshdary and John were good friends. They often saw him at Friday prayers.
Once Maguire had left to join ISIL in Syria, Peshdary either texted or called Chris to say he needed to meet with him urgently. When they did, Chris said, Peshdary had a message for him from John and gave him two books on Islam to give to his family.
Chris, too, had converted to Islam and Peshdary was “a little pushy” when he heard that Chris had “taken a step back” from his practice of the faith.
William Langenberg, Maguire’s stepfather, told the court about his son’s “open personality,” how he liked to joke and would use his aptitude in chemistry class to make friends with girls. But the John they knew had changed. Once a lover of music and well-known in the community, he destroyed his prized guitars in the backyard to prevent himself and others from sinning.
After moving to California in 2009 to attend college, John asked to come back just the next year.
“He came back as a loner,” Langenberg said. “He smoked a lot of dope in California” and “he was full of fear, felt isolated and lonely.”
His relationships were gone. That is, until he connected with a group of friends in Ottawa, Peshdary allegedly among them.
“It happened gradually,” Langenberg said of the change. John had new friends, he found a new religion, he was eating halal, changing his clothing, and he had a Muslim girlfriend who wore a hijab.
His family didn’t want to lose him. “We never interfered.”
But then he was concerned at a Christmas dinner about family dogs accidentally touching him. He called his sister a whore for
I honestly felt he was being brainwashed. I think he was programmed and he was afraid of going to hellfire.
from him was one week before the propaganda video made national news in November 2012.
In that six-minute video played in court, Maguire tells all Canadians that he was one of them, but now “your people will be indiscriminately targeted as you indiscriminately target our people.
“You either pack your bags or you prepare your explosive devices,” Maguire told the camera. The choice was to purchase airline tickets or sharpen their knives.
Maguire, while still in Canada, had worked part-time jobs at the Independent Grocer, Zellers and Walmart. His stepfather co-signed a student loan for him to attend the University of Ottawa.
“How he got all that money together to go to Syria, I don’t know,” Langenberg said.
On cross-examination, Langenberg told the court that he had assumed John had also made some money from an e-book he wrote in college.
His student loans, however, were also in excess of $17,000 — money that Langenberg has no account of. The stepfather also has no bill for university tuition, leaving how that money was spent a mystery to him.
The loan was eventually paid off. But Langenberg has no idea by whom.
Shirley Anne Maguire, John’s grandmother, told the judge-alone trial she had been up all night before her testimony.
She remembers the last time she saw John, standing in her house saying he was going over to a friend’s to study. Days later CSIS would come knocking on her door to tell her Maguire was in Turkey.
In the time before he left, Maguire had wanted her to go to mosque with him.
“I told him that there was nobody on two feet that would sway me from what I believed,” she said.
“I honestly felt he was being brainwashed. I think he was programmed and he was afraid of going to hellfire.”
She had a hard time describing the “bronze”-skinned, “dark”haired friend who was with John before he left her house and the country for good. “They all look alike to me.”
Peshdary was swept up by RCMP in 2015 alongside three other Ottawa men who were part of a terrorism cluster in the capital.
Twins Ashton and Carlos Larmond and their friend Suliman Mohamed have all pleaded guilty to their offences and remain in federal prison.
Peshdary was originally slated to stand trial in 2016, then in March 2018, before further delays finally brought evidence to an Ottawa courtroom.
Peshdary’s trial continues.