RCMP releases key documents just before trial
11th-hour data release could put case against alleged ISIL recruiter at risk
Just weeks before accused ISIL recruiter Awso Peshdary is scheduled to go on trial, the RCMP has disclosed key documents to his defence team, some three years after his arrest.
The handover of 1,900 documents comes after top anti-terrorism investigators launched an internal audit last month to see if all relevant evidence had been appropriately disclosed. It hadn’t, and the 11th-hour disclosure has the potential to jeopardize the case against Peshdary, should his lawyer request an adjournment or a stay, or later argue that his client’s case took too long to get to court.
Police are required by law to disclose all relevant evidence so the accused can mount a full and fair defence, and that evidence is supposed to be handed over long before trial dates are set.
Ottawa’s Awso Peshdary, 28, is scheduled to go on trial in March to face RCMP allegations that he is a star recruiter and terrorism financier, but his top defence lawyer, Solomon Friedman, is still getting key disclosure after years of fighting in court.
On Jan. 24, federal prosecutors finally handed over the 1,900 documents which, among other things, reveal that the RCMP edited a draft of an application for a key search warrant at the behest of Canada’s spy agency.
Federal prosecutors handed over more key documents on Feb. 5.
These documents provide a rare, inside look into the inner workings of the country ’s anti-terrorism investigators.
They paint a portrait of an RCMP investigative team that was keeping secrets, even from one another.
SECRET MEETING
Take the secret meeting an RCMP inspector had with CSIS in the summer of 2013, regarding its asset Abdullah Milton.
The Mounties would later hire Milton to infiltrate the ISIL-connected terrorism network in Ottawa with which Peshdary is allegedly linked.
The meeting happened roughly eight months before the lead RCMP investigator learned that his prized agent, Milton, had previously worked as a CSIS asset.
So while other investigators on the same team were having secret meetings with CSIS — meetings that were reported to the RCMP’s chief superintendent — the lead investigator was kept in the dark.
The lead RCMP investigator only learned that Milton was a CSIS asset when they moved to expand their Peshdary investigation and get a wire to target Milton.
For unknown reasons, top Mounties at the RCMP’s headquarters also failed to forward the 1,900 pages of disclosure to its own investigative team. The RCMP’s primary investigator in Project Servant — an investigation that led to charges against Peshdary — asked RCMP headquarters for full disclosure shortly after Peshdary ’s arrest. Again, and for reasons that remain a mystery, evidence that was marked “relevant” was then not disclosed to the defence until the eve of trial.
The primary investigator testified this week in Ottawa court that he was concerned relevant material from headquarters was not disclosed when he asked for it three years ago.
CSIS has also finally handed over relevant evidence. The intelligence agency handed over CDs to the defence on Feb. 12. Those CDs were blank but CSIS later handed over CDs that contained 906 digital files that include 2013 conversations between Milton, 39, and Peshdary. The conversations are revealed in screenshots from Facebook messages. In one message, Peshdary says fellow Muslims are slandering him and accusing him of extremism, only for the agent to reply “For real? Wow! What have you said in the past 2 years that is extreme? I haven’t heard you say anything extreme.”
Peshdary: “They are accusing me of recruiting people to fight in Syria which is such a lie.”
“Ya, you told me NOT to go to Syria,” Milton replies.
CSIS, under a rare court order to disclose some of its secret records last year, finally handed over even more disclosure on Feb. 16, including key notes from when they assessed Milton before using him as an asset. The freshly disclosed CSIS documents detail the RCMP agent’s “nervous breakdown” and the time when he “self-harmed” by banging his head against bars of a jail cell after being arrested for domestic assault.
The fresh disclosure comes after a 2016 motion by the defence lawyer, Friedman, for third-party records from CSIS. The motion has so far uncovered a pile of evidence that was never disclosed to the defence team.
Milton was initially a CSIS asset who had been recruited despite an assessment by the spy agency that portrayed him as a parasitic psychopath.
CSIS had approached Milton in January 2011 and he was later assessed for reliability in two interviews in 2012. Milton was first interviewed on Oct. 30, 2012, for three hours, then again on Oct. 31, 2012, for five hours. Beyond the interviews, government agents also investigated his private life.
MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
The Muslim convert was on welfare and teetering on bankruptcy at the time. He had significant mental health issues and had been married at least seven times.
The Mounties came across Milton during their investigation into Peshdary. They wanted to include Milton in a wiretap as a person of interest. Milton would go from being an RCMP target to a prized agent who was paid at least $700,000 to spy on his friends.
The RCMP never asked CSIS about its credibility assessment of Milton, saying that it wanted an unbiased view of its new agent, and that if there had been any problems with Milton the intelligence service would have cut him adrift.
The RCMP project culminated in the arrests of Peshdary and three other young Ottawa men — Vanier twins Ashton and Carlos Larmond along with Suliman Mohamed. The Larmonds and Mohamed are now serving prison sentences after entering guilty pleas to RCMP terrorism charges that were built on evidence provided by Milton.
Because of their guilty pleas, no trial was held and no one heard from Milton. Guilty pleas were entered without the benefit of any of the key Crown disclosure that has emerged from Friedman’s successful motions.
The RCMP declined to comment on the case because it’s before the courts, and CSIS did not respond to a request for comment.