War crimes charges against Toronto ISIS suspect are a first for Canada

A Toronto delivery driver accused of dismembering a prisoner in Iraq almost a decade ago has become the first suspected ISIS member to face war crimes charges in Canada.

An indictment filed in the Ontario court has charged Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi with four counts, including torture and murder, under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.

The alleged incidents occurred during the height of ISIS in 2014 and 2015. Three years later, Eldidi flew to Toronto and made a refugee claim that was accepted. He is now a Canadian citizen.

Global News revealed last summer that Eldidi, a former Amazon driver originally from Egypt, was allegedly seen in a 2015 ISIS video, using a sword to chop the hands and feet off a prisoner.

“This is the first national security investigation where war crimes charges have been laid in Canada,” the RCMP’s Ontario spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The charges are groundbreaking for Canada, said Prof. Michael Nesbitt, associate dean of research at the University of Calgary law school, and a leading expert on national security law.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” he said.

As far as he is aware, Canada’s prosecution service has never before used the war crimes act against a suspect for alleged crimes committed in the territory of the Islamic State, he said.

Rather, Canada has mostly used war crimes laws for deportations and citizenship revocations. In 2021, a B.C. resident pleaded guilty to war crimes for promoting hatred against residents of the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Eldidi was already charged with aggravated assault over the alleged incident in Iraq, as well as terrorism charges for what the RCMP said was a disrupted ISIS attack plot in Toronto.

But five months later, the Crown has filed more substantial war crimes charges, alleging the 62-year-old committed mutilation and “outrages upon personal dignity” during an armed conflict.

The victim is not named in the indictment, obtained by Global News, but is described as a “protected person in a non-international armed conflict.”

The RCMP said the investigation was conducted by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Greater Toronto. The charges were approved on Dec. 11 by George Dolhai, Canada’s deputy attorney general.

Eldidi “attended court yesterday and is being held in custody,” the RCMP said.

ISIS committed untold atrocities in Syria and Iraq, including the genocide of Yazidis, but in 2019 it lost the last of its territory to Kurdish fighters backed by an international military coalition.

Since then, there has been little in the way of justice against ISIS members, including in Canada, where only a handful of those who have come home after serving in the group have been prosecuted.

The majority of Canadian ISIS women who have returned to B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec have been arrested on peace bonds that restrict their movements but do not amount to a criminal charge.

Eldidi’s alleged crimes were captured on a four-minute video released in 2015 by the ISIS branch in northwest Iraq. Titled “Deterring Spies,” it shows a prisoner confessing before being led outside to a deserted area.

The prisoner is then shown suspended from a cross while a man wearing an ISIS hat hacks at his appendages with a sword. Prosecutors have alleged the man wielding the sword is Eldidi.

Despite his alleged past in Iraq, Eldidi was able to fly to Toronto’s Pearson airport in 2018. His refugee claim was accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Board, and he became a citizen in May.

However, following a subsequent tip from French authorities, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP national security unit launched investigations.

Police arrested Eldidi and his son Mostafa, 27, after they allegedly recorded a video in which they held an axe and machete, and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.

The case has raised questions about gaps in Canada’s immigration security screening system. The government has defended its actions but said it was reviewing the matter.

“The review is ongoing and more information will be communicated once available,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement last month.

At a Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security hearing in August, Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman questioned how “somebody like this, who’s an alleged ISIS terrorist” was able to obtain citizenship.

“Do you really think that that’s how the system should work? Do you really think that this is not a colossal failure of your government?” she said.

The number of ISIS-related investigations has surged across Canada, with 20 suspects arrested this year and last, compared with just two in 2022.

According to police and experts, youths are driving the surge in ISIS activity as the terror group rebounds from its 2019 defeat in Syria.

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca

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