A 20-year-old man has been released without charges and a youth has been charged with a terrorism-related offence following a national security investigation that uncovered materials for a homemade improvised explosive device in a Kingston, Ont. home.
Hussam Eddin Alzahabi, a Syrian refugee living in Kingston, was released without charges Friday, one day after heavily-armed police officers swarmed two houses and made the arrests.
The young person – who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act – is charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and counselling a person to use an explosive or other lethal device in a public place with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm.
The RCMP described Alzahabi and the youth as friends.
The explosive or device was never planted, according to RCMP.
MORE DETAILS REVEALED
At a news conference in Kingston on Friday, RCMP Supt. Peter Lambertucci said the suspect was reported to be involved in the manufacturing of homemade improvised explosive devices.
Before Alzahabi’s release, Lambertucci said police could hold the man without charging him for 24 hours before they had to release him. He said the investigation is ongoing, however, and they can lay charges at a later date.
RCMP said they received credible information from the FBI in December 2018 regarding a planned attack. Lambertucci said no specific target or timeline for the attack were identified.
In co-operation with multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI, Kingston police, Ontario Provincial Police, CBSA, CSIS, and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), RCMP conducted an investigation, which included aerial surveillance.
Lambertucci said as many as 300 people were involved in the probe.
In a statement, the FBI commented on their involvement in the investigation.
“As long-standing law enforcement partners, the FBI and the RCMP routinely work together and share information on matters of national security to keep our citizens safe.”
As part of the investigation, Lambertucci said a low-altitude surveillance plane, which was spotted multiple times by Kingston residents in recent weeks, was deployed.
“The aerial support of the plane allows us surveillance capabilities from the air to ensure that we are able to maintain public safety and mitigate risk surrounding certain addresses, certain areas of concern," he said.
RCMP said they gathered enough evidence to make the arrest and lay charges. He said there was never a threat to public safety at any time.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said it’s too soon to say whether or not the individual charged may have connections to a larger group. But Goodale credited Canadian and U.S. investigators for working together on the case.
“It’s that whole team and the teamwork approach that made sure in these circumstances, that the public was safe and secure at all times.”
On Thursday, Goodale said police carried out the operation “based on credible information, to ensure public safety.” He said Canada’s official threat level would remain at “medium” where it’s been since 2014.
ON THE SCENE IN KINGSTON
On Friday morning, there was a police blockade with multiple cruisers parked in front of a house in Kingston where the two individuals were arrested the day before following raids on two homes in the eastern Ontario city.
A student who lives beside one of the raided homes says she was “pretty shocked” by the news. She said the neighbours once helped her move her couch and stopped by at Christmas to drop off food.
“They’re always friendly, they’ve helped me move in a few times, and everything seemed pretty normal,” Vanessa MacFarlane told CTV Toronto.
RCMP said what is believed to be an explosive substance was located in one of the houses on Friday morning.
“We did remove that substance from the residence and we did detonate that substance,” Lambertucci said. “It was neutralized and rendered inert.”
Amin Alzahabi told The Canadian Press Friday that his 20-year-old son Hussam Eddin Alzahabi had been freed.
Alzahabi said his family arrived in Canada two years ago. He said they travelled from their home in Damascus to Kuwait before they came to Canada.
The family’s home was destroyed and the father was imprisoned for not joining Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ruling party, according to a church group that sponsored the family to bring them to Canada as refugees. The sponsors said the family risked severe retaliation if they returned home.
Bronek Korczynski, who was involved in the family’s sponsorship, told The Canadian Press that he was shocked by news of the man’s arrest.
“This is just a real body blow,” he said. “We're just gobsmacked by this. It's so out of whack with the family we've come to know and care for.”
Korczynski said the younger Alzahabi had both a younger and older sibling.
Kingston police and RCMP met with Korczynski and other community leaders on Friday morning to provide them with information on the case.
“It was very much an opportunity to say, ‘What can the community do to make sure that this doesn't become an incident that unjustifiably targets any ethnic group, national group, religious group?’” Korczynski said.
SURVEILLANCE PLANE
Ward Elcock, who headed CSIS between 1994 and 2004, told CTV Power Play on Friday that it is relatively easy to find bomb-making instructions online.
“There are a lot of recipes out there on the internet, have been for years,” he said. “So the possibility of somebody being able to build some kind of explosive is not a startling new development. It’s happened before, probably will happen again.”
Elcock also said that he is not surprised that so few details have emerged this early in the case, particularly because it involves a minor.
While it remains unclear if the alleged explosive device was intended to be used in Canada, the U.S. or at all, Elcock said that the December FBI tip signified “that there was some contact across the border” involving the suspect. He also said that there was little wrong with Canadian police waiting so long to make arrests in the case.
“You want as much information, evidence as you can possibly get in order to have a successful prosecution,” he explained.
The Jan. 24 raids and arrests, he added, may also have come sooner than desired for investigators.
“The timing in this one may have been accelerated because of the airplane and the fact that it was identified flying around Kingston,” he said of the RCMP aircraft that was spotted over the city in recent weeks. “I suspect in all likelihood that it was doing visual surveillance.”
With files from The Canadian Press
