Ottawa man to face trial over sex crimes against senior
An Ottawa man has failed in his attempt to have graphic video evidence of his alleged abuse of an 80-year-old man excluded from his upcoming trial.
In September 2017, Marwan Ahmad, 33, was charged with sexual assault, forcible confinement, assault with a weapon, uttering threats and mischief under $5,000.
The complainant’s identity is protected by a publication ban, customary in cases of alleged sexual assault. Ahmad’s lawyer did not respond to requests from the Citizen for comment.
According to police documents — which have not been tested in court — Ahmad gained access to his alleged victim’s Ottawa apartment on Aug. 18, 2017, having been invited inside for tea. The men are not related.
The visit turned into an overnight stay after Ahmad laid down on the complainant’s bed and fell asleep. The complainant ultimately slept on the couch.
The following morning, the complainant agreed to let Ahmad stay at his apartment for a few days, “as he felt bad for him,” according to documents filed by an Ottawa police investigator seeking authorization for a search warrant.
“During his occupancy in (the complainant’s) apartment, Ahmad took on a more dominant role and began controlling (the complainant),” according to the police investigator. The complainant “felt compelled to clean, cook, do six loads of Ahmad’s laundry, go grocery shopping and be at Ahmad’s beck and call on a daily basis.”
Things allegedly escalated as the end of the month approached. Faced with the complainant’s request that he leave, “Ahmad began to act in a very assaultive, controlling and aggressive manner.”
The complainant was “physically
beaten, and threatened almost on a daily basis by Ahmad. At one point during his captivity, (the complainant) was threatened with violence and forced to take his clothes off so that Ahmad could take pictures of him naked and helpless.”
The investigator’s account of his interviews with the complainant and witnesses plus reports by fellow police officers detail how Ahmad is alleged to have tried to order the complainant to drink his urine, brought prostitutes into the apartment and forced the complainant to stay in his room while Ahmad engaged in sexual activity with these women and demanded the complainant perform a sex act on him and hit him if he refused to do so.
The complainant alleged that Ahmad forcibly shaved half of the complainant’s head so he “wouldn’t want to go out in public” and smashed his cellphone and reading glasses.
The complainant “attempted to flee the apartment on three or four occasions as he really thought that he would die if he did not escape,” but was stopped every time.
On Sept. 7, nearly three weeks after Ahmad first entered his alleged victim’s apartment, a building cleaner found the complainant on his hands and knees outside the door of his unit, “begging for help,” while Ahmad stood over him yelling, police documents say. The cleaner helped the complainant get away and he fled to the home of a family member before returning to the apartment four days later to report the alleged ordeal.
Ahmad was “kicked out of the building” on Sept. 7. On Sept. 10, a day before the complainant went to authorities, Ahmad flew to Nice, France, from Montreal.
Ahmad’s charges were announced to the public and a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest was obtained. Less than a month later, Ahmad was arrested in France after allegedly making “terrorrelated threats” while in a Nice hotel. While searching Ahmad’s cellphones for links to terrorist organizations — nothing came up — French police found video clips of Ahmad “mistreating an elderly male victim” by exposing his genitals and masturbating in front of the alleged victim, shaving the man’s head and throwing urine and feces at him.
The phone was seized and sent to police in Ottawa, where a warrant to search its contents was granted and the videos were found.
Ahmad was extradited to Canada. While awaiting trial, he submitted a motion seeking to exclude from evidence his cellphones and their contents, arguing breach of his charter right to security against unreasonable search or seizure. A Superior Court justice dismissed the motion in a written decision Feb. 10. Ahmad’s trial is scheduled to begin March 2.