Al-Shabaab suspect going directly to trial on terror charges: prosecutor

TORONTO – The case of a suspected terrorist arrested at a Toronto airport last spring will be going directly to trial after the public prosecutor decided to skip preliminary hearings.

The so-called direct indictment, which came down in a Brampton, Ont., court on Wednesday, means Mohamed Hassan Hersi’s trial will begin much sooner. But it’s also a move his lawyer said will rob him of a chance to question some of the charges.

Hersi, 25, was arrested in March at Pearson International Airport as he boarded a plane headed for London and Cairo.

RCMP say he was on his way to Somalia to join the militant group al-Shabaab, designated a terrorist organization by both Canada and the United States.

Police said Hersi, a Canadian citizen who has been free on bail, quit his job to prepare for the trip.

He was charged with attempting to participate in terrorist activity and providing counsel to a person to participate in a terrorist activity.

“We’re disappointed that the Crown chose this course because Mr. Hersi now doesn’t have the opportunity to test the case … to see if there’s even sufficient evidence to send him to trial,” Hersi’s lawyer, Anser Farooq said.

“That would have been very useful for us.”

Farooq has said his client had no intention of becoming a member of al-Shabaab and was set up by a man who tried to befriend him. He argues he was travelling to Egypt to take Arabic language courses, and that his mother was considering moving there.

Farroq said he doubted he would fight the Crown’s decision because winning such a battle was extremely unlikely, but he would consider the mover over the next week.

Hersi, he added, is doing “OK,” but had been looking forward to moving ahead with the preliminary hearing.

Hersi’s arrest earlier this year ended a six-month investigation dubbed “Project Severe.”

Police said they were tipped off to Hersi’s alleged involvement with terrorist organizations in September 2010. They said they seized evidence in the case, but provided no details.

Authorities said at the time of Hersi’s arrest they had found nothing that would suggest a direct threat to Canada.

But police and others have expressed concern about the number of young Somali-Canadians who have been recruited, radicalized and indoctrinated by al-Shabaab, which is dedicated to overthrowing Somalia’s transitional government.

Al-Shabaab – which means “the youth” in Arabic – embraces an extremist form of Islam similar to the conservative brand practised by Afghanistan’s Taliban. Its fighters number several thousand.

In October, the al-Qaida-linked group called for terrorist attacks in Canada and a host of other countries.

Ottawa listed the Somali group as a terrorist organization last year, citing youth recruitment as one reason. That same month, Mohammed Elmi Ibrahim, a former University of Toronto student who disappeared in 2008, was killed in Somalia after joining the group.

Six men who attended a Toronto mosque disappeared in 2009 and are also believed to have joined al-Shabaab.

Ibrahim’s death shook Somali-Canadian parents so deeply that some began hiding their children’s passports after news of his death as well as revelations that Al-Shabaab had been targeting young Canadian men through websites, videos and recruiters.

Ahmed Hussen, national president of the Canadian Somali Congress, said Wednesday he hadn’t seen reports of any new recruitment since last year’s spike.

“In terms of this case, the prosecution exercised their discretion to move directly to trial, invoking the public interest, and we’ll see how the case plays out,” he said.

Somalia has not had a fully functioning government in more than 20 years.

A recent CSIS report acknowledged several Canadians left for terrorist training camps in Somalia in 2009, demonstrating “the attraction for some of travelling abroad for training and becoming ensconced within groups co-ordinating and planning violent ‘jihad’ against the West.”