Mountie in upcoming terror trial a former spy, prosecutors reveal
Star witness’s CSIS past seen as key in RCMP requests for warrants
The prized RCMP agent who infiltrated an ISIL network in Ottawa was also paid by CSIS to spy on one of the same terror targets years earlier.
The new details in the RCMP case against accused terrorism financier and recruiter Awso Peshdary, 27, were revealed in court on Thursday when his defence team — Solomon Friedman and Michael Edelson — made arguments in its bid to get all the records from CSIS so it can properly defend its client.
Court heard that federal prosecutors didn’t let the terrorism suspect’s defence team know about the RCMP agent’s paid CSIS history until two days ago, even though Peshdary was charged two years ago.
“In a case where our client’s liberty interests are at their highest, we’re already being asked to fight this battle with one arm tied behind our back. We do not have access to information that in any other criminal case would be a matter of routine,” Solomon Friedman told Ontario Superior Court Justice Julianne Parfett.
The defence request for all files related to the RCMP agent’s prior dealings with CSIS are key because without CSIS information, the Mounties were getting nowhere on securing warrants in the terrorism case.
In fact, the RCMP were previously denied warrants twice in the case until CSIS helped them out.
Without full disclosure of all the CSIS documents, the defence is essentially “blindfolded” from meaningful cross-examination of RCMP agent Abdullah Milton, Friedman told court.
The credibility and reliability of Milton, the star witness in the Crown case, will be key issues at the terrorism trial scheduled for 2018.
Friedman argued that the records should be disclosed because Milton isn’t a protected source, but rather a paid police agent who has waived his privacy privilege and has agreed to testify against Peshdary at trial.
A key issue at trial will be how Milton, a Muslim convert from New Brunswick, went from terrorism target to prized agent.
The RCMP agent has so far been paid at least $800,000 by the Mounties to spy on his one-time friends in an anti-terrorism investigation that yielded criminal charges against a network in Ottawa, including three targets who have already pleaded guilty. It is not yet known how much he was paid by CSIS.
Friedman said he intends to also question the agent’s motives, ranging from financial to whether he was a neutral observer or an active participant in the conspiracy.
“Whose conspiracy was this? Was it (the agent’s)? Was his role passive and just intelligence-gathering ? Or was he essentially whipping it up?” Friedman asked in court.
Milton has said that he fell into the spy business by accident. He said that in January 2011 CSIS visited him after he posted photos he took of Parliament Hill as a tourist.
He went on to work for CSIS, but the details of his contract have never been made public.
When the Mounties were investigating Peshdary, they moved to expand their terrorism probe to include one of his associates — Abdullah Milton — not knowing that he was actually a CSIS agent. CSIS then cut its ties with Milton and handed him over to the RCMP in 2014.
In a case where our client’s liberty interests are at their highest, we’re already being asked to fight this battle with one arm tied behind our back.
Milton’s work is credited for convictions against terror twins Ashton and Carlos Larmond, and Suliman Mohamed, who pleaded guilty in August to plotting to leave the country to join ISIL.
The case against Peshdary is also anchored in the agent’s spy work. Peshdary has pleaded not guilty to financing and recruiting and is scheduled to go on trial in 2018.