Ex-UW student jailed for terrorism
Tried to join jihadist group, promoted attacks on West
WATERLOO — A former University of Waterloo engineering student who promoted violent jihad has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for his involvement in a terrorist group. Kevin Omar Mohamed, 25, was arrested in Waterloo in March 2016 by the RCMP, who had been tracking him after he flew to Turkey in 2014 and crossed the border into Syria with the intention of joining Jabhat Al-Nusrah (JAN), an al-Qaida linked jihadist group.
Mohamed was sentenced in Ontario Superior Court on Tuesday for “participating in or contributing to, directly or indirectly, any activity of a terrorist group for the purpose of enhancing the ability of any terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity.”
He pleaded guilty, admitting he’d tried to join the terrorist network and put posts on social media promoting terrorist attacks in the West.
“When Mohamed reached Syria, he successfully met with members of JAN,” read an agreed statement of facts from his sentencing.
“He remained in Syria at the direction of, or for the benefit of, JAN. His purpose was to enhance the ability of that group to commit terrorist activity.”
Mohamed returned to Canada after his mother and brother flew to Turkey and begged him to come home, court heard.
He later enrolled in the engineering program at the University of Waterloo.
His lawyer Paul Slansky said Mohamed’s extremist views have been softened since his arrest, and he no longer supports violence against others.
The former Waterloo student was motivated by the suffering of Syrian people, his lawyer said, but acknowledges now his motives were misplaced.
“He appears to be a much different person now than when I first met him,” Slansky said.
“His position is he has already been de-radicalized … He wants to make it clear to the court he is not a proponent of radical Islam or violent jihad. He’s had a lot of time to think about what he’s done.”
When he was arrested, Mohamed was also charged with carrying a concealed weapon and with possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace. Waterloo campus security found him hiding out in the university’s student life centre with a large hunting knife, court heard.
Police searched his lockers in the basement of the university’s engineering building and found documents titled “assassination,” written in Arabic, that described potential targets for a terrorist attack.
Federal prosecutors later revealed the former Whitby resident also passed on information about the Royal Military College to the Islamic State.
He spent a co-op work placement in Kingston.
While at the university, Mohamed’s increasingly radical tweets caught the attention of a Waterloo-based team that researches radicalized youth.
He began translating Arabic tweets from al-Qaida into English and distributing them to a wider audience.
One of those researchers from the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society tried to interview Mohamed about his views, but he declined.
“We had noticed his activity online, and had a few interactions with him. We attempted to interview him, but we could never line it up.
“He was a bit of an erratic,” said Lorne Dawson, the group’s director and a University of Waterloo sociology professor.
“The next thing we knew, he’d been arrested.”
After he returned from Syria, Mohamed began posting a series of tweets praising Osama bin Laden and promoting terrorist attacks against non-believers.
“Maybe you shouldn’t live in the lands waging war on islam unless your planning attacks against them, perhaps either get out or attack,” he wrote, under the alias Abu Khalid.
“If someone wants to attack the west, and is scared of largescale attacks he could start small, like burning cars and kufar (non-believers) in parking lots,” he said, in another tweet.
When police finally arrested him on March 25, 2016, he’d been hiding out for about a month. After trying to avoid attention, he’d posted a video game-style photo on Twitter depicting a mass shooting following a deadly terrorist attack at Brussels airport.
Court records show Mohamed was caught after a witness had reported him at the University of Waterloo’s Student Life Centre, where investigators watched him as he lived out of open campus rooms, including the multifaith room.
The former Waterloo student had been hiding out after he suspected he was under surveillance, according to court records.
He’d switched off his phone, withdrew $3,500 from the bank and went off-line.
Photos revealed in court showed him wrapping his phone in aluminum foil at Tim Hortons in Cambridge, in an attempt to avoid detection.
Mohamed’s lawyer told the court his client has accepted responsibility for his actions.
He says the sentencing was appropriate, adding the former UW student is willing to take part in a de-radicalization program.
“I’d just like to say I’m sorry and I recognize what I did is wrong,” Mohamed told the court.