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Ottawa terror trial's key Crown witness describes how he became an RCMP agent

12-26-2018

A star witness in an Ottawa terror trial says he became an agent of the RCMP not because he feared his newfound friends were turning to terrorism, but because he believed they might harm another man they suspected of being a police informant.

Abdullah Milton began his testimony Monday in the trial of Awso Peshdary, 28, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of recruiting, facilitating and financing a terrorist group.

Milton is protected by a publication ban that bars any description of his appearance or any disclosure of his current residence.

His testimony, given in a courtroom closed to the public, is expected to offer new insight into the Crown’s case in the long-running legal proceedings against Peshdary.

Milton testified he became friends with Peshdary through the Algonquin College Muslim Students’ Association, where he came to know Peshdary as a “very prominent, very vocal” student leader with the campus MSA.

A recent convert to Islam, Milton had joined the student group’s Facebook page when Peshdary first reached out in January 2011.

They met again during Eid celebrations that year at a local play centre, and they crossed paths again when Milton applied for a job at the Walmart near Trainyards, and he was placed in the same renovation crew with Peshdary.

Their friendship continued, Milton testified, until Peshdary’s arrest in January 2015.

Milton was introduced to a number of young Muslims through an organization called Resurrection Ottawa, which hosted groups of students to attend lectures from prominent local Islamic scholars.

Peshdary himself would occasionally attend events as a guest speaker.

It was there that he met John Maguire, Milton recalled, at a lecture at Algonquin College in December 2012.

Maguire would board a plane days later bound for Syria, where the 24-year-old Kemptville man would surface in a notorious ISIL recruitment video two years later calling on Muslims to wage jihad on Canadian soil.

International arrest warrants remain active for Maguire and for Khadar Khalib, 23, an Algonquin College business student who left Canada in March 2014 and surfaced on social media in photos from an ISIL battlefield. Both men are suspected to have been killed in battle.

Milton testified he also met Khalib at Algonquin.

Court was shown a photo, widely circulated following Peshdary’s arrest, featuring a number of male members of the Algonquin MSA, each one showing the same salute with a single index finger raised.

Milton, though not a student at the time, testified he befriended a core group of MSA members before eventually turning to police.

That conversion began with a man named Corey Adams, whose alleged role has never been reported or publicly revealed.

Adams, like Milton, was also a Muslim convert who looked to Peshdary and the Algonquin MSA for spiritual guidance.

They all suspected he was an undercover police agent.

“(Peshdary) believed Adams was spying on him … because of the kinds of questions he would ask. They made him suspicious,” Milton testified, saying Adams would attend meetings and often ask about Syria and the ongoing conflict there.

“He would bring it up every meeting,” Milton said.

(Peshdary) believed Adams was spying on him … because of the kinds of questions he would ask. They made him suspicious
Once, while Adams was out of town, Peshdary and his friends entered his apartment and found books on Syria and documents that heightened their suspicions.

“He said he was very sure Corey Adams was an undercover police agent,” Milton said recalling how  he and Peshdary met with Mohamed Ali Farhat at a local Tim Hortons. (Milton testified the chain was a favourite haunt of their group.)

“Farhat said we should ‘merc’ him. That’s a slang term that means to kill somebody, or to severely beat him til he was close to death,” Milton explained.

Peshdary was completely against the idea, he said, and instead it was suggested they recruit someone to rob him and look in his wallet for any ID that would confirm their suspicions.

Then, Milton testified, they talked about getting a weapon.

“After that meeting I contacted CSIS and informed them what had occurred. They put me in touch with the RCMP,” he said.

“I became an agent with the RCMP. … It meant that I would assist them in their investigation of Mr. Peshdary. At first it was related to a specific threat toward Corey Adams.

“It changed to investigate (Peshdary’s) involvement with radicalization and extremism.”

Milton’s testimony continues.

ahelmer@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/helmera

 

 

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