Two held on terror peace bonds
BRAMPTON, ONT .• The RCMP has arrested two Ontario men on terrorism peace bonds after they returned to Toronto from Turkey, where they had been detained for two weeks for allegedly attempting to enter the country’s conflict zone.
Samuel Aviles and Kadir Abdul were scheduled to make court appearances Thursday.
Neither has been charged with any crimes but prosecutors want peace bonds to restrict their activities due to concerns they may engage in terrorism.
Both left Canada on March 23 and were detained in Turkey on March 31, the RCMP said.
On Friday, they were arrested upon landing at Toronto’s Pearson airport and appeared in court Saturday. They were released on bail on Monday.
RCMP Supt. Lise Crouch of the Toronto Integrated National Security Enforcement Team said Wednesday the investigation was continuing but the peace bonds were part of the police force’s terrorism-prevention mandate.
She said Toronto police had received a missing person’s report about one of the men and had passed the information to the RCMP. Police believe the two may have been on their way to Syria when they were stopped by Turkish authorities.
Foreign fighters on their way to Syria and Iraq to join armed factions such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant commonly transited through Turkey, but the republic has been under increasing international pressure to crack down on the flow of combatants.
The home address the court provided for Aviles was on the same street in Whitby, Ont., as Kevin Omar Mohamed, who was arrested in Waterloo on March 25. He was initially arrested on a peace bond but was later charged with a single count of terrorism.
A hearing to decide whether Mohamed will be released on bail began Tuesday and was expected to wrap up Thursday.
The RCMP has alleged he travelled to Turkey in 2014 to join the al- Qaida faction in Syria, Jabhat Al-Nusrah.
Immediately before his arrest, a post on his Twitter account showed an image of travellers being gunned down and asked where one could find the “Brussels airport” version of the video game Call of Duty. Terrorists struck in Brussels on March 22.
Canadian police are increasingly using peace bonds to deal with the country’s growing extremism problem, particularly in cases where they have evidence a suspect has become radicalized and is preparing to travel abroad to engage in terrorism.
Under federal anti- terrorism laws, police can seek peace bonds against those they have reasonable grounds to fear may be about to commit terrorism offences. Conditions imposed on them can include no Internet use or travel as well as electronic monitoring.