Federal officials aim to protect agents
Courts asked to hide true identities of officers who crack terror cases
Federal officials are seeking to hide the identities of undercover officers involved in the probe that led to the arrest of a Pakistani man accused of plotting to bomb the U. S. consulate in Toronto.
The Canada Border Services Agency intends to ask the Immigration and Refugee Board, which is hearing the case against Jahanzeb Malik, to ban the media from identifying the officers, the suspect’s lawyer Anser Farooq says.
Attempts to protect undercover officers have become common in recent Canadian terrorism cases, most recently this month’s convictions of Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier, who plotted to derail a Toronto- bound passenger train.
In that case, an FBI officer testified but the court ordered he couldn’t be identified. The same occurred during last year’s trial of Mohamed Hersi, a former Toronto security guard who attempted to join Somalia- based terror group al- Shabab.
Malik was arrested in Toronto on March 9 following a six- month investigation by the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. He hasn’t been criminally charged but is being detained for deportation on security grounds.
The 33- year- old Pakistani national, who came to Canada in 2004 to study at York University and was later sponsored by his wife to immigrate, is being held at a provincial detention centre.
On April 22, 2012, he was charged by Peel police with assaulting and threatening to kill his wife. Two months later, he was arrested again for failing to stay at least 500 metres away from her home in Mississauga, Ont.
Despite the unresolved charges, he somehow left Canada, returning to Toronto’s Pearson Airport on April 3, 2013. He told the CBSA and Canadian Security Intelligence Service he’d been teaching in Libya.
Six days later, he pleaded guilty to two charges and was given a conditional discharge and 18 months probation. The other charges were withdrawn.
The national security investigation began in September 2014.
An undercover officer posing as a former fighter in the Bosnian civil war initially contacted Malik about installing hardwood floors in his home. According to the CBSA, Malik began to trust the officer and opened up to him.
Malik told the officer he’d been to weapons training camps in Libya and supported ISIL and al- Qaida, the CBSA said. They watched videos of ISIL beheadings and Malik voiced his support for terrorists who attacked the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris, the agency alleged.
“Mr. Malik then began to recruit the undercover officer to assist him in making an explosive device that could be detonated remotely,” CBSA officer Jessica Lourenca said at a March 11 hearing.
Targets were to include the U. S. consulate and buildings in the Toronto financial district.