Canada gives up on its citizens joining Daesh

By Ahmed Lamlom

As the influence of the terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria has been limited, their elements have begun to search for any way to flee and return to their homelands to regain their lives before joining the terrorists. Those wishing to return to their homes are a problem that alarms the officials of the countries from which they originate.

"There are consequences for any Canadian citizen who decides to travel outside the country to fight in terrorist groups in areas of conflict," said Canada's Minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, Tuesday. "Those consequences must be borne by everyone who takes this decision when he returns home. These will be treated harshly and rigorously.”
 
Goodale’s statement follows the broadcast of a television interview with a Canadian fighter in the Daesh organization called Mohammad Ali, known as the Canada’s Abu Terab, who was captured by the Kurdish majority Syrian democratic forces in Ras al-Ayn, near the border with Turkey, along with his wife and their two children.

The Canadian government estimates the number of its citizens who have joined the organization in Damascus and Iraq to stand at 190 people, in addition to 60 people returned to the country again during the last period.
 
Legal hunt down of Daesh

So far, only four people from Canada have been prosecuted. The government faces a dilemma in dealing with them as it finds a lack of sufficient evidence to convict them during the trials.

"If the Canadian government intends to repeat what it did in the abduction of journalist Amanda Lindhout, with Canadian returnees from the ranks of the Daesh organization, there will be strong international cooperation between our intelligence agencies and other agencies to collect evidence from the battlefield, "We are not the only country facing this challenge."
 
Canadian authorities have sent  investigators abroad to gather evidence of Ali Omar, the abductor of the Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout in Somalia's capital Mogadishu in 2008, to be brought before a court that examined the case after Omar was arrested on his arrival in Canada from Somalia. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the end of last year.

Wesley Wark, a national security and counterterrorism expert and professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, says the main challenge for the Canadian authorities is to find strong evidence: "Any Canadian court prosecution of these returnees must contain evidence gathered by the Canadian investigative authorities themselves. Evidence collected in cooperation with other parties can not be relied upon; it will not be accepted by the Court. "
 
"The challenge for Canada is to find a base of evidence that can stand up to the judicial system," Wark said in an interview with Canada's Global NeWesley Wark, a national security and counterterrorism expert and professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, says the main challenge for the Canadian authorities is to find strong evidence: "Any Canadian court prosecution of these returnees must contain evidence gathered by the Canadian investigative authorities themselves , Evidence collected by cooperation with other parties can not be relied upon; it will not be accepted by the Court. "
 
"The challenge for Canada is to find a base of evidence that can stand up to the judicial system," Wark said in an interview with Canada's Global News Network this week. "This challenge is not difficult to solve, it is only difficult."