A Toronto father and son arrested while allegedly in the “advanced stages” of planning a violent attack have been charged with multiple terrorism-related offences, the RCMP say.
Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and Mostafa Eldidi, 26, face a total of nine charges. Among them is one count each of conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit or at the direction of a terrorist group — namely the ISIS, a Sunni Muslim militant organization.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Matt Peggs announced the charges at a news conference on Wednesday.
The pair were arrested on July 28 in a hotel room in Richmond Hill, Ont., after a month-long investigation that involved multiple police services, Peggs said.
The alleged attack was going to target Toronto, RCMP Supt. James Parr said, though the exact nature of the threat falls under a publication ban. Parr said there is no ongoing danger to residents of the city.
The pair also face weapons charges for possession of an axe and a machete, which they had with them at the hotel when they were arrested, Parr said.
“As you know, they were charged with having particular weapons. In other words, we’re pretty confident how close they were to moving from simply having those tools and then moving on to actioning that threat,” Parr said when asked about what kind of attack the pair were allegedly planning.
RCMP officials say they prevented a terrorist attack in Toronto after arresting a father and son in a Richmond Hill hotel on July 28. The pair were allegedly planning an attack targeting Toronto. CBC’s Tyler Cheese has the latest on the investigation.
Court documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice show the duo reside at the same address in Scarborough, an eastern suburb within Toronto. Parr declined to say whether anyone else lived at the address.
Both men are Canadian citizens, according to Parr, who added he didn’t know if they also held citizenship in another country.
Neither man was known to police before the investigation began in early July, Parr said. He would not say what prompted police to begin the probe.
“So the RCMP receives information in a variety of ways and that could be through the form of tipsters. It can come through other governmental agencies and partners. Once again, the way that this unfolded, I will curtail my comments at this time,” Parr told reporters.
A charge sheet also alleges Ahmad Fouad Mostafa Eldidi committed an aggravated assault for the benefit of the Islamic State in 2015 somewhere outside of Canada.
Asked about how investigators came to know about that alleged incident, Parr credited civilian and public service members of the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team with “putting together the pieces” leading to that specific charge.
The pair are currently being held in police custody, and another court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.
The RCMP says a Toronto father and son have been charged with multiple terrorism-related offences after planning an attack targeting the city of Toronto. RCMP Superintendent James Pan said during a news conference on Wednesday that investigators are still trying to determine who were the targets of this attack, but there is no ongoing danger to residents of the city.
At the height of its powers in late 2014 and 2015, the Islamic State imposed a reign of terror over millions of people and claimed control over swaths of the combined territories of Iraq and Syria.
Its fighters repeatedly defeated both countries’ armies and carried out or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world.
Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared his cross-border caliphate from the pulpit of Iraq’s historic al-Nuri mosque in 2014, and vowed to rule it. Five years later, he was killed in a raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria.
The caliphate collapsed in Iraq, where it once had a base only a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria after a sustained military campaign by a U.S.-led coalition.