Raised in Senegal, radicalized in Canada
Family fears for son who came here to study economics, wound up in jail facing terror charges
MONTREAL— As the child of a Senegalese diplomat, Assane Kamara was accustomed to finding his place in unfamiliar lands. In his 24 years, he had lived in Ivory Coast, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Madagascar.
But his privileged upbringing veered off course in 2014, prompting his worried mother to launch a search for her son, and leading her from the family home in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, to Friday prayers in an Edmonton mosque.
As she forced him to return home, a member of the Kamara family said that the questions swirled. What had become of the young man sent for an education at Quebec’s Université de Sherbrooke? Why had he cut contact with his family and moved to western Canada? And who were the devout Canadian Muslims he now counted as his closest friends?
In the months following the intervention, three of those friends — Samir Halilovic, Zakria Habibi and Youssef Sakhir — would flee Canada to try and join Daesh, the Islamic terror group in Syria and Iraq.
Today, Kamara sits in a Dakar jail facing terrorism charges that were laid in February 2016, based on allegations he had planned to join a jihadist group, Henry Boumy Ciss, a spokesperson for Senegal’s National Police, told the Star.
It was Kamara’s mother who asked police to investigate, Boumy Ciss said.
The charges against Kamara have not been tested in court.
His Senegalese lawyer did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story, which is based on interviews with police, friends and family of Kamara and those of his Canadian acquaintances.
Under questioning by Senegalese police, Kamara is alleged to have identified Halilovic, Habibi and Sakhir as people with whom he had ties in Sherbrooke, Boumy Ciss said.
RCMP national security investigators are now asking questions about other Canadians who may have crossed paths with Kamara when he lived in Canada, according to a Kamara family member. One of Kamara’s friends claims the Mounties asked him to work as an informant. Taken together, the information gives a rare glimpse into a probe that has gone across the country and around the world, but is still unresolved more than two years after it began.
An RCMP spokesperson refused to comment on the case, or to even confirm it is investigating what happened in Sherbrooke.
“Generally, only in the event that an investigation results in the laying of criminal charges would the RCMP confirm its investigation, the nature of any charges laid and the identity of the individual(s) involved,” wrote Staff Sgt. Julie Gagnon. Kamara’s saga began when he moved to Canada to study at Université de Sherbrooke in the fall of 2010, according to a member of the Kamara family who spoke on condition that he would not be identified by name. The Star could not independently verify the family member’s account.
While at Sherbrooke, Kamara met Sakhir, Habibi and Halilovic. They were part of a larger group whose members stood out for their religious devotion. On occasion, they would stay up through the night to practice reciting the Qur’an, said the Kamara family source.
After falling in with the group, Kamara “completely changed his lifestyle,” the family member said.
He was enrolled as an economics student. In one 2013 project, he was part of a group that conducted a financial analysis and drew up an investment plan for the iconic company Canadian Tire. But he also declared that capitalism was “haram,” or forbidden by his faith, the family member said.
He also began speaking more and more about religion and the obligation to live under Shariah, or Islamic law.
One of his friends at the university, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case, said Kamara became more focused on religion but showed no signs of extremism.
“Being diligent with prayers does not necessarily mean that you are radical,” the friend said in an interview. “Generally, it is in someone’s speech or in discussions about their intentions that you can judge whether someone is radical . . . With me he did not have that.”
Another classmate, Raïs Kibonge, said Kamara often juggled school commitments with the activities of the Muslim Student Association. He described Kamara as “extremely polite and gentle” and recalled once being invited to a conference on Is- lam — an offer that Kibonge, a practicing Catholic, declined.
The last time Kibonge saw Kamara was in the fall of 2013 as students were returning to school. Kamara was at a Muslim Student Association kiosk distributing introductory books on Islam to passing students, Kibonge said. “That was the last I heard of him.” Kamara seems to have abandoned his studies in 2013. His student visa had expired and he fought with an older brother with whom he lived in Sherbrooke, Que., according to the family member.
In early 2014, he moved to Edmonton and began working in construction. Sakhir, a psychology graduate, also moved to Edmonton, as did Habibi, who found work as a security guard.
Kamara’s stay in western Canada lasted several months. With little word from him, his worried mother flew to Canada from Dakar and began searching for her son, the family member said.
She stopped first in Sherbrooke and spoke to some of his friends before travelling to Edmonton.
With few leads, she assembled a team of people and dispatched them to mosques in the city for Friday prayers, according to the family source. One of them caught word of a young Senegalese man who was new to the community. They were directed to the front of the mosque. Kam- ara was leading the prayer service, the family member said.
According to Boumy Ciss, the Senegalese police spokesperson, Kamara’s mother later filed a statement with police as to what had happened.
“It emerged that her son, a student in Canada, had abandoned his studies to join a group made up of fundamentalists,” wrote Boumy Ciss, citing the statement.
Kamara’s mother convinced her son to come home to Senegal. But in the months that followed, Sakhir, Habibi and Halilovic slipped out of Canada and onto the RCMP’s radar.
As far as Zakria Habibi’s family knew, he was on a summer trip to Turkey.
A missing person notice posted on Facebook by the family said he left Canada on July 13, 2014, and cut contact four days later.
“He is the type of person to always give us news which is why we are so concerned,” said the notice.
On Sept. 10, 2014, his dormant personal Facebook page came alive one last time with a brief message: “Alhamdulillah (Praise God) I’m okay.”
Habibi’s family declined an interview request.
Youssef Sakhir was friendly and loved engaging in philosophical conversations, said Kibonge, the former university student who worked with him at a Sherbrooke call centre.
In April 2014, he posted photos of his black bass guitar on a Facebook site, offering to sell it for $400. On Aug. 31, 2014 — following his disappearance — there was a post on his Facebook page that he had been married.
When contacted by the Star, Sakhir’s mother said she has had no contact with her son since his disappearance in the summer of 2014.
When Samir Halilovic disappeared, he had been writing for two years on Twitter about the plight of Muslims across the Middle East and the necessity of an Islamic caliphate governed by Sharia law. In 2012, he wrote that his father had challenged his “extremist” views on Islam.
In May 2014, Halilovic posted a picture to a Facebook site seeking to sell a blue designer ball gown for $300.
Then, on June 4, 2014, Halilovic took out a $725 loan, according to a statement of claim obtained by the Star that was filed in a Quebec court after he defaulted on repayments.
About a month later, he left the country.
Kamara told a family member that Halilovic married after arriving in Syria.
He is also believed to have died in Syria, though that could not be independently verified.
Halilovic’s parents did not respond to an interview request.
News that Halilovic, Sakhir and Habibi had disappeared attracted media attention in Sherbrooke as the RCMP began searching for them and meeting with the families of the young men.
The news also reached Kamara in Dakar, who was living at the family home, according to his family member.
In January of this year, his mother approached police when she learned about a trip Kamara had arranged to Tunisia, said Boumy Ciss, the Senegalese police spokesperson.
The woman told investigators in her statement “that her son, Assane Kamara, had left for Tunisia to join the ranks of the jihadists,” Boumy Ciss said.
Kamara was detained in Tunisia and a few days later returned to Dakar, according to the family member. The next day, police officers arrived at the family home to arrest Kamara on charges of criminal association with a terror group, glorification of terrorism and involvement in terrorist financing.
Kamara is awaiting trial, Boumy Ciss said.
Senegalese news reports, citing unnamed police investigators, said that officers had recovered financial statements showing that Kamara received money from a number of individuals, including Harris Catic, another friend from Sherbrooke.
Catic told the Star in a written exchange that he has not provided financial assistance to Kamara since his return to Senegal in 2014, although he did send a Ramadan gift to his old friend.
“I sent a present by the normal mail for Ramadan to thank Assane for having taught me the Arabic alphabet and for having taught me how to recite certain verses of the Qur’an,” Catic wrote.
He also says he has had no contact with Habibi, Halilovic or Sakhir since their disappearances in the summer of 2014.
“I would like to help you but I am of no use in this case.”
Catic now fears he is being watched by the RCMP.
Catic says that he submitted a passport application to the federal government on June 17, 2015, and had hoped to visit his father and other family members in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“When I applied for the passport, two (RCMP) agents came to meet me in a restaurant and they came solely to ask me to work for them as an informer, or a spy — call it how you wish,” he wrote.
“I refused their offer and I’m still waiting for my passport.”
“He is the type of person to give us news which is why we are so concerned.” MISSING PERSON NOTICE FROM FAMILY OF ZAKRIA HABIBI