A CEGEP student suspected of terrorist activities agreed in court on Tuesday to respect strict conditions for one year. According to the authorities, Mohamed Amine Assal praised terrorism on social networks and said he rubbed shoulders with supporters of the Islamic State armed group in Montreal.
“We must make terrorism the norm again. Make it the new trend,” Mohamed Amine Assal reportedly launched on the social network Telegram on February 24, according to a message intercepted by the FBI.
The 19-year-old student did not face any criminal charges. He was instead arrested last March under an “810”, a provision of the Criminal Code which allows recognizance to be imposed on a person, when the authorities have “reasonable grounds” to fear the commission of a crime .
Already subject since March to strict conditions, including wearing a GPS bracelet, the young man appeared in court on Tuesday accompanied by his father. Before Judge Nathalie Duchesneau, he admitted that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had reasonable grounds to believe that he was committing an offense related to terrorism.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Mohamed Amine Assal (left) also hid his face when he appeared in court in September.
The judge thus imposed around fifteen conditions on him to respect for one year, under penalty of committing a criminal offense. In particular, he will have to respect a curfew from 11 p.m., except one night per week to go to a mosque in the Saint-Laurent borough for “mentoring and discussion activities for young people”.
Among other things, Mohamed Amine Assal will only have access to a “flip” type phone and will not be able to use the internet, except for his studies and work. The young man will neither be able to leave Quebec nor apply for a passport. He must continue to wear a GPS bracelet. He will obviously be prohibited from consulting terrorist or hateful material.
He would have radicalized his little brother
Mohamed Amine Assal was an aircraft maintenance student at the École nationale d’aérotechnique de Saint-Hubert – a campus of Collège Édouard-Montpetit – when the authorities nabbed him. According to information from the American federal police provided to the RCMP, the young college student made extremely worrying comments on the Telegram, Discord and Reddit platforms.
The RCMP therefore launched an investigation targeting the young man on charges of “facilitating a terrorist activity” and having “advised the commission of a terrorism offence.” However, he was not charged with these offences.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
Mohamed Amine Assal, a few years ago.
According to an FBI source, Mohamed Amine Assal convinced a follower of the Islamic State group based in Italy to commit terrorist attacks. The two were reportedly close, even starting a podcast together. According to the source, the Italian terrorist said that the young Montrealer was also planning an attack.
In addition to radicalizing his nine-year-old brother, Mohamed Amine Assal also allegedly claimed to have added 20 members of his school to a Telegram group, according to the FBI source. Under the pseudonym “Joe”, Assal allegedly claimed that one of the people in the group of 20 was on the verge of becoming a supporter of the Islamic State armed group.
“Joe supports attending a mosque where the sheikh appears to support ISIS (Islamic State), but remains very cautious in his comments. Joe reported meeting several Yemeni brothers who support ISIS at the mosque,” the RCMP report reads.
In some messages, the Montreal student explained to an interlocutor how to make a bomb with black powder and “a pack of nails” tied around a pipe, according to allegations by American police. Assal reportedly said he was in contact with a “brother” who was ready to finance “operations”. He spoke of assassinations of “disbelievers,” beheadings and other violent acts.
“I imagined politicians gathering somewhere. So, a white van with eight well-trained men […] quickly kill a few guards in front of the building, then enter to butcher the politicians. […] It’s doable, and it would be considered a martyr’s operation,” wrote “Joe” on Telegram.
Me Nancy Parrault represented the federal Crown in this matter, while Me Mustapha Mahmoud defended the young man.