Montreal man jailed for attempt to join ISIL
MONTREAL • Saying Ismael Habib was obviously desperate to leave Canada to join ISIL in Syria, a Quebec Court judge sentenced the Montreal man to an overall prison term of nine years on Friday.
The sentence is precisely what Crown prosecutor Lyne Décarie requested during sentencing arguments in August. He was found guilty in June, making him the first adult in Canada to be convicted after going to trial on the charge of attempting to leave Canada to join the Islamic State.
Judge Serge Délisle also ordered Habib to serve at least half his sentence before he becomes eligible for parole. Usually, offenders in federal penitentiaries are eligible for parole after serving one-third of their sentence.
“This was not the utopian and thoughtless project of a teenager who was manipulated or carried away by an impulse,” Delisle told the court. “It was rather with perfect knowledge of the objectives of the Islamic State and the methods used by this entity that the offender multiplied the steps to return to Syria and join the Islamic State.”
Habib was sentenced to an eight-year prison term for attempting to leave Canada to join the terrorist group in Syria. He was sentenced to a one-year additional term for
using false documents in an attempt to obtain a passport.
Delisle noted the court had not been presented with any evidence on Habib’s prospects for rehabilitation, which he cited as another reason for the nine-year term. The sentences have to be served consecutively. Factoring in time served, Habib will serve a little more than six and a half years.
Délisle said one of the mitigating factors in reaching his decision is Habib has had no news of his wife and two children (who were believed to be in ISIL-held territory in Syria in 2016) for the past 15 months and he has to live with the consequences of sending them to Syria.
Habib appeared calm as Delisle read from his 10-page decision. He sat in the prisoner’s dock with his chin on his hands and his expression changed somewhat when it became apparent Delisle fully agreed with the Crown’s suggestion of an overall sentence of nine years.
Habib’s lawyer, Charles Montpetit, had suggested a six-and-a-half year sentence would be more fair because Habib had no previous criminal record when arrested in March 2016.
Habib, who was born in Montreal to a Catholic mother from Quebec and a Muslim father from Afghanistan, was in Syria in 2013 for three months. In November 2012, he had left for Turkey to find his wife and two children with the intention of bringing them to Syria. But when he arrived in Turkey, he was told his passport had been revoked and Turkish authorities returned him to Canada.
“Since his return to Canada in 2013, (Habib) actively searched for a way to leave the country to return to Syria and join the group Islamic State,” Delisle said.