A Toronto delivery driver accused of dismembering a prisoner in Iraq nearly a decade ago has become the first suspected ISIS member to face war crimes charges in Canada, experts said.
An indictment filed in an Ontario court charges Ahmed Fouad Mustafa Al-Didi with four counts, including torture and murder, under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
The alleged incidents occurred during ISIS’ heyday in 2014 and 2015. Three years later, Eldidi flew to Toronto and applied for asylum, which was accepted. He is now a Canadian citizen.
Global News revealed last summer that Al-Didi, a former Amazon driver originally from Egypt, was seen in a 2015 ISIS video using a sword to cut off the hands and feet of a prisoner.
“I can confirm that Ahmed Al-Didi is charged with crimes under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act,” Natalie Holley, a spokeswoman for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, said on Monday.
Professor Michael Nisbet, associate dean for research at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law and a leading expert on national security law, said these charges are the first of their kind in Canada.
“It’s kind of a big deal,” he said.
He added that to his knowledge, Canadian prosecutors have never used the war crimes law against any suspect for alleged crimes committed on ISIS territory.
Instead, Canada has mostly used war crimes laws for deportations and citizenship revocations. In 2021 residing in British Columbia plead guilty To war crimes for promoting hatred against the population of the Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Al-Didi has already been charged with aggravated assault for the alleged incident in Iraq, as well as terrorism charges for what RCMP said was a foiled ISIS attack plot in Toronto.
But six months later, the Crown brought further war crimes charges, alleging the 62-year-old committed mutilation and “outrages upon personal dignity” during an armed conflict.
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The victim was not named in the indictment, obtained by Global News, but is described as a “protected person in a non-international armed conflict.”
The charges were approved on December 11 by Georges Dulhaye, Deputy Attorney General of Canada.
ISIS committed unspeakable atrocities in Syria and Iraq, including the genocide of the Yazidis, but in 2019 it lost its last territory to Kurdish fighters and an international military coalition.
Since then, there has been little justice against ISIS members, including in Canada, where only a few of those who returned home after serving in the group have been prosecuted.
The majority of Canadian ISIS women who returned to British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec were arrested under peace bonds that restrict their movements but do not amount to a criminal charge.
Al-Didi’s alleged crimes were captured in a four-minute video released in 2015 by ISIS’s branch in northwestern Iraq. The film, titled “Deterring Spies,” shows a prisoner confessing before being led outside to a deserted area.
The prisoner is then shown hanging on a cross while a man wearing an ISIS hat stabs his limbs with a sword. Prosecutors claimed that the man with the sword was Al-Didi.
Despite his alleged past in Iraq, Al-Didi was able to fly to Toronto’s Pearson Airport in 2018. The Immigration and Refugee Board accepted his refugee claim, and he became a citizen in May.
However, following a subsequent tip-off from French authorities, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team began investigations.
Police arrested Al-Didi and his son Mustafa, 27, after they allegedly recorded a video in which they carried an ax and a machete and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group.
The case raised questions about loopholes in Canada’s immigration security screening system. The government defended its actions but said it was reconsidering the matter.
“The review is ongoing and more information will be released as soon as it becomes 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 Lantzman asked how “someone like this, an alleged ISIS terrorist” could obtain citizenship.
“Do you really think this is the way the system should work? Do you really think this is not a colossal failure of your government?” she said.
The number of ISIS-related investigations has risen across Canada, with 20 suspects arrested this year and last, compared to just two in 2022.
According to police and experts, al-Shabaab is driving a surge in ISIS activity as the terror group recovers from its 2019 defeat in Syria.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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