Interpol issues ‘red notice’ for Canadians
Men wanted for alleged roles in ISIL
Interpol has posted a “red notice” asking international police forces to arrest a former Ottawa student who appeared in an ISIL video last December calling for terrorist attacks in Canada.
John Maguire, 24, is wanted by the RCMP for his suspected role in ISIL and an alleged recruiting network that operated out of Ottawa. A pro-ISIL Twitter account claimed in January he had been killed in northern Syria.
But his recent addition to the Interpol wanted page suggests police have not confirmed his death. One of his suspected associates, Khadar Khalib, 23, also of Ottawa, is now subject to an Interpol red notice as well.
What appear to be passport photos of the two men are posted on the international police organization’s website — although one of the photos on Maguire’s wanted page erroneously shows another Canadian, Andre Poulin, a former resident of Timmins, Ont., and Toronto who was killed in Syria in 2013.
Maguire and Khalib were both students at Algonquin College and associates of a Muslim Students Association activist named Awso Peshdary, who was arrested in February for his alleged role in sending jihadist fighters to Syria.
In a video released four months ago, Maguire said Canadians would be indiscriminately targeted and that Muslims were obliged to either join ISIL or “follow the example” of the attackers who struck in Ottawa and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., in October.
“You either pack your bags, or prepare your explosive devices. You either purchase your airline ticket, or you sharpen your knife,” he said.
He added that “waging jihad” against the West was “a religious obligation binding upon every Muslim.”