Boy robbed to fund jihad, police say
Teen said to have contacted Quebec man who killed soldier
MONTREAL
A 15- year- old boy, who reportedly had Facebook contact with the Montreal man who ran down a Canadian soldier in October, robbed a convenience store at knifepoint and allegedly planned to use the stolen money to leave the country and join in terrorist activities.
The Reuters news agency said the boy is the first minor to face such charges in Canada. The teenager, who cannot be identified because of his age, appeared Wednesday in Quebec Court’s youth division in Montreal.
The boy’s father became suspicious when his son came home last Oct. 11 without his backpack. He investigated and discovered the backpack, filled with cash, in the backyard.
After the boy denied he had committed any crime, the father phoned police, who arrested the boy at his school. “I just did my duty as a citizen,” the father told La Presse. “I don’t want a medal.”
According to the newspaper, the teenager told investigators it was sinful for a Muslim like him to live in a non- Muslim country, and he wanted money to travel to a country that used Islamic law.
Investigators also determined he had Facebook exchanges with Martin Couture Rouleau, the Muslim convert who murdered Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent with his car in StJean-sur- Richelieu on Oct. 20, the newspaper said. Investigators claim they found jihadist material.
The boy pleaded guilty to the robbery at the end of October, barely two weeks after his Oct. 17 arrest, La Presse reported. After investigators learned
I just did my duty as a citizen. I don’t want a medal. FATHER OF 15- YEAR- OLD SUSPECT
of his travel plans, Montreal police then alerted the Quebec provincial force and RCMP, a Mountie spokesman said.
The boy now faces one charge alleging he committed a crime “for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group.” A second charge alleges he attempted to leave Canada for the purpose of aiding a terrorist group.
“The RCMP is relentless in the pursuit of those who would seek to participate in terrorist activity,” assistant commissioner James Malizia said. “We are determined to take action to protect Canadians and to keep our communities safe and resilient.”
After Couture Rouleau killed Vincent, it emerged that the RCMP had seized his passport last summer and put him on a watch list after he tried to leave the country for Turkey.
On Oct. 22, the day after Vincent died in hospital, Michael Zehaf- Bibeau shot Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before dying in a gunfight in the Centre Block of Parliament.
The 15- year- old is being held in a youth detention centre and is due back in court in January.
“This is a reminder that terrorism remains a very real threat to Canadians,” Jason Tamming, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, told Reuters.