Jury finds Daesh supporter guilty
Woman used a golf club and knife to attack employees, customers at a Canadian Tire
A jury has found Rehab Dughmosh guilty on four terrorism-related charges, concluding a brief and bizarre trial in which she refused to participate except to admit she tried to join Daesh in Syria and later used a golf club and knife to attack a Scarborough Canadian Tire while shouting, “This is for ISIS.”
Jurors saw Dughmosh, 34, refuse to enter a plea or make a defence in her two-day trial — but they were not told she did this for what was described in court as “religious reasons.” They also were not told the trial had such an unusual process because lawyers had needed to devise a way to allow Dugh- mosh to effectively plead guilty without actually participating in the trial. The jury was quickly picked on Wednesday and the same day heard a six-page statement of facts read by the Crown and admitted to by Dughmosh. That was the only evidence presented at her trial.
“Ms. Dughmosh was prepared to admit the facts the Crown was alleging,” said Crown prosecutor Jason Wakely after the verdict, but she was not willing to participate in a trial in the normal way, which presented some challenges. “It was in the interests of justice that we proceeded this way because there was no dispute about the facts.”
Superior Court Justice Maureen Forestell entered pleas of not guilty to all four charges on Dughmosh’s behalf.
The jury returned their verdict Thursday afternoon, just over an hour after starting their deliberations.
When asked by the judge if she had anything to add following the verdict, Dughmosh said no.
It is highly unusual for an accused person to refuse to participate in their trial — even in other Daesh-related cases — but such a choice may be in keeping with their specific ideology, said Amarnath Amarasingam, a senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and a prominent Canadian researcher of Islamic extremism and terrorism.
“For these individuals, only God’s law is paramount and nothing else applies,” Amarasingam said.
According to a psychiatric assessment in 2017, Dughmosh said she understood the court process but would not participate because it was against her beliefs.
“If I go under the Canadian law, not the Islamic law, I’ll be against my religion and not be Muslim anymore,” she said.
The most similar recent case may be that of Chiheb Esseghaier who was convicted in 2015 of several terrorism-related charges after he declined to participate in his lengthy trial, and like Dughmosh, represented himself. Dughmosh was initially charged with 21 charges after the June 3, 2017, attack, including four counts of attempted murder for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with the terror group Daesh.
The outstanding counts are expected to be withdrawn following her conviction on four charges — two counts of assault with a weapon, one count of carrying a weapon for a dangerous purpose and one count of leaving Canada to commit an offence, specifically joining Daesh.
According to the facts presented in court, Dughmosh was thwarted in an attempt to join Daesh in April 2016 when her brother reported her plans to the RCMP.
Turkish authorities turned her back to Canada and she was interviewed twice by the RCMP who ultimately did not lay charges and closed the case.
At the time, Dughmosh maintained she was simply going to visit family in Damascus.
A year later, on June 3, 2017, she used a golf club and a knife she’d brought from home to attack employees and customers in a Scarborough Canadian Tire while wearing a homemade banner and bandana emblazoned with Daesh symbols. Two employees and a customer managed to subdue and disarm Dughmosh of both golf club and knife before Toronto police arrived.
No one was seriously injured, though Dughmosh bit one of the employees on the arm during the struggle.
“She could not have been any clearer that she was doing this for the benefit of ISIS,” Wakely said during his closing address to the jury, using another name for Daesh.
“She literally declared the words: ‘This is for ISIS.’ She draped herself in an ISIS banner.
“She wrapped an ISIS bandana around her head and she repeatedly said words to the effect that she did this for ISIS.”
Earlier this week, the Crown said they would be seeking an eight-year sentence less time served, but on Thursday Wakely said a final decision has yet to be made and that there may be more evidence to consider.
Dugmosh’s attack is the only Toronto case that has been explicitly linked to Daesh — through her unilateral pledge of allegiance.
Though the terror group attempted to claim the July 2018 Danforth shooting, no evidence has emerged to support that assertion. Dughmosh is now one of a small group of individuals to be convicted of attempting to leave Canada to participate in terrorist activities.
Ismael Habib, of Quebec, was sentenced to nine years after a 2017 trial.
Wakely said this verdict sends a strong message to any Daesh sympathizers or supporters who are considering leaving Canada to join the terrorist group or committing acts of violence in their home countries.
He said that the RCMP’s decision not to lay charges after Dughmosh was returned from Turkey in 2016 was reasonable at the time.
At the request of Forestell, court will hear submissions on Monday as to whether a mental health assessment of Dughmosh should be done prior to sentencing.
Dughmosh, who is self-re- presented, underwent a courtordered psychological assessment in 2017 after her initial visits with a psychiatrist in jail prompted concerns that she had a psychotic disorder.
She was ultimately found fit to stand trial and not diagnosed with any major mental disorder.
According to initial reports, Dughmosh said God gave her visions in her dreams of America being destroyed, that the jail staff was putting “sorcery” in her food to prevent her from worshipping God and that the Canadian government had put surveillance devices in her home.
Dughmosh also repeatedly refused to go to the courtroom, resulting in her being peppersprayed twice and engaging in hunger strikes.