VANCOUVER – Mauritanian authorities dispute claims a Canadian man linked to Islamic extremists was tortured and say he was bound for Mali when they arrested him in late 2011.
Aaron Yoon is now imprisoned in the capital Nouakchott, convicted in July 2012 – seven months after his arrest — on charges of trying to join a terrorist group and attempting to recruit others to do the same.
The 24-year-old was friends with Xristos Katsiroubas and Ali Medlej – the London, Ont. men killed in a deadly siege at an Algerian gas plant in January.
Yoon has not been directly linked to Katsiroubas’ and Medlej’s alleged participation in the terrorist attack — although it’s believed he travelled overseas with them – but, Global News has learned authorities believed he was headed to Mali to fight with a jihadist group.
He was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of five million Mauritanian Ouguiyas (about $18,000 CAD).
Yoon, who was going by the Arabic name Yoon Haroun, told CBC News in a phone interview on Friday he is innocent and had been tortured. But translated court documents obtained exclusively by Global News say he confessed to the charges against him out of fear of torture, but later declared he was not tortured.
Ahmed Ould Teguedi, the Mauritanian ambassador to the United Nations, also dismissed Yoon’s claims that Foreign Affairs officials ignored his pleas for assistance.
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Canada’s Dept. of Foreign Affairs and International Trade also refuted Yoon’s claims, telling Global News on Saturday: “Canadian officials continue to provide assistance to the individual, as they would for any Canadian detained abroad.”
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The documents, dated July 4, 2012, state Yoon went to Mauritania to study Arabic and the Qur’an. After five months of study at two different schools, he was introduced to a jihadist recruiter named Mohammed El-Hafez, who “used to make him listen to jihadi tapes until he convinced him with the Takfiri ideology and asked him to join the camps.”
Takfiri Islam, according to the CIA, is an extremist ideology that forces conversion to Islam “by force and death,” and has been associated with militant groups such as Al-Shabaab and al-Qaida.
The documents state that El-Hafez convinced Yoon and two others to travel to terrorist training camps in Northern Mali. All of them agreed to go and were waiting for a date to cross the border, when authorities apprehended them at a hotel.
There was no mention in the documents of Medlej or Katsiroubas, but records show Yoon had a friend, named “Mustafa,” who was prepared to go to the camp “when he return(ed) to Mauritania.”
Katsiroubas reportedly began referring to himself as “Mustafa” after converting to Islam in 2004. But, it’s not clear if the “Mustafa” Yoon referred to is Katsiroubas.
RCMP confirmed the bodies of Katsiroubas and Medlej were found in the In Amenas gas refinery, which was attacked in January by an extremist group called “Signatories in Blood.”
By the time the Algerian army put an end to the four-day standoff on Jan. 16, 38 western hostages and 29 militants were found dead inside the complex.
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