The war crimes charges against the Toronto ISIS suspect are the first in Canada
A Toronto transport driver accused of beheading a prisoner in Iraq nearly a decade ago has become the first suspected ISIS member to face war crimes charges in Canada, experts say.
The case filed in the Ontario court charged Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi with four charges, including torture and murder, under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
The alleged incidents occurred during the rise of ISIS in 2014 and 2015. Three years later, Eldidi flew to Toronto and made a refugee claim that was accepted. He is now a Canadian citizen.
Global News reported last summer that Eldidi, a former Amazon driver from Egypt, allegedly appeared in a 2015 ISIS video, using a sword to cut off the hands and feet of a prisoner.
“I can confirm that Ahmed Eldidi is facing charges under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act,” said Nathalie Houle, spokeswoman for Canada’s public prosecution service, on Monday.
These cases are the first in Canada, said Prof. Michael Nesbitt, associate dean of research at the University of Calgary, and a leading expert on national security law.
“It’s a big deal,” he said.
As far as he knows, Canadian prosecutors have never used war crimes against a suspect for alleged crimes committed in Islamic State territory, he said.
Instead, Canada has made extensive use of war crimes laws for deportation and revocation of citizenship. In 2021, a BC citizen pleaded guilty to war crimes for inciting hatred against residents of the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Eldidi was already charged with aggravated assault for the alleged incident in Iraq, as well as terrorism charges for what RCMP said was a foiled ISIS plot in Toronto.
But six months later, the Crown filed serious charges of war, alleging the 62-year-old was mutilated and “outraged by human dignity” during the altercation.
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The victim was not identified in the lawsuit, obtained by Global News, but is described as “a person protected from non-international conflicts.”
The charges were approved on December 11 by George Dolhai, Canada’s deputy attorney general.
ISIS committed untold atrocities in Syria and Iraq, including the genocide of the Yazidis, but in 2019 it lost its last stronghold to Kurdish fighters and the international military coalition.
Since then, there has been little in the way of justice for ISIS members, including in Canada, where only a handful of those who returned home after serving with the group have been prosecuted.
Most of the Canadian ISIS women who have returned to BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec are being held on peace bonds that restrict their movement but are not criminal charges.
Eldidi’s alleged crimes were captured in a four-minute video released in 2015 by an ISIS branch in northwestern Iraq. Titled “Deterring Spies,” it shows a prisoner making a confession before being led out into the wilderness.
The prisoner is then shown hanging from a cross while a man wearing an ISIS hat slashes at his relatives with a sword. Prosecutors say the man with the sword is Eldidi.
Despite his alleged past in Iraq, Eldidi was able to fly to Toronto Pearson Airport in 2018. His refugee claim was accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Board, and he became a citizen in May.
However, following a subsequent tip from French authorities, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team launched an investigation.
The police arrested Eldidi and his son Mostafa, 27, after they allegedly recorded a video holding an ax and machete, pledging allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group.
The case has raised questions about gaps in Canada’s immigration screening process. The government defended its action but said it was reviewing the matter.
“The review is ongoing and more information will be released as it becomes available,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement last month.
At a hearing of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security in August, Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman asked how “someone like her, an alleged ISIS terrorist” could get citizenship.
“Do you really think that’s how the system should work? Do you think this is not a big failure of your government? ” he said.
The number of ISIS-related investigations has increased across Canada, with 20 suspects arrested this year and last, compared to two in 2022.
According to police and experts, youth are driving the rise of ISIS activity as the terrorist group recovers from its 2019 defeat in Syria.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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