Quebec man handed nine-year sentence for trying to join ISIL

MONTREAL — Ismael Habib had been ready to do anything for the Islamic State, including dying for it, a Quebec court judge said Friday to justify the accused’s nine-year prison term.

Judge Serge Delisle sentenced Habib to eight years in prison for attempting to leave Canada to join the Islamic State and one year for giving false information to obtain a passport.

“This was not the utopian and thoughtless project of a teenager who was manipulated or carried away by an impulse,” Delisle told a Montreal courtroom.

“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 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 ISIL.

The judge cited the 29-yearold Habib’s “total adherence” to the principles and goals of ISIL as a central reason for the long sentence.

Delisle also justified the nineyear term by noting the court had not been presented with any evidence on Habib’s prospects for rehabilitation.

The accused, wearing a black T-shirt, appeared to listen attentively to the judge’s words but did not react as he was sentenced.

In his judgment, Delisle said the evidence presented at trial showed Habib had researched the organization extensively and had made his intentions clear.

“He wasn’t counting on going there to play a passive role,” Delisle continued. “He was ready for anything for the Islamic State, even to die.”

The time Habib has already spent in custody was subtracted from the sentence, leaving him with slightly more than six-anda-half years left to serve.

The 29-year-old was ensnared by an RCMP-led sting operation, in which he admitted to an undercover agent posing as a crime boss that he wanted to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State.