TORONTO, CANADA // One of two men accused of plotting with Al Qaeda members in Iran to derail a train in Canada became radicalised to the point that his father reached out to a Muslim support group for help and advice, a local religious leader has said.
Muhammad Robert Heft, president of the Paradise Forever Support Group, a non-profit organisation that provides support to Muslims in Canada, said Mohammad Jaser came to him several times citing concerns about his son.
"He came to me about his son, saying how concerned he was getting about the rigidness of his son and his interpretation of Islam. He was becoming self-righteous, becoming pushy, pushing his views on how much they [his family] should be practising as a Muslim," said Mr Heft.
Mr Jaser's son, Raed, 35, has been charged along with Chiheb Esseghaier, 30 with conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group in their plot to derail a train that runs between New York City and Montreal.
Canadian investigators say the men received guidance from members of Al Qaeda in Iran. Iranian government officials have said the government had nothing to do with the plot.
"His son was becoming overzealous and intolerant in his understanding of the religion," Mr Heft said. "Those are the telltale signs that can lead into the radicalisation process."
The discussions took place between 2010 and 2011, while the father was renting a basement apartment in Mr Heft's home in Markham, Ontario.
On Wednesday, the other suspect appeared briefly in court where he made a statement suggesting he did not recognise the court's jurisdiction.
"This criminal code is not a holy book," Mr Esseghaier said at the hearing. "We cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments."
Mr Esseghaier also rejected the allegations against him and declined to be represented by a court-appointed lawyer.
Raed Jaser appeared in court Tuesday and did not enter a plea. The court granted a request by his lawyer, John Norris, for a publication ban on future evidence and testimony.
Both men were ordered to return to court on May 23.
"We are waiting for the disclosure and we will be defending against the charges," Mr Norris said.
He declined to ay if he wanted his client's case separated from Mr Esseghaier, who has spoken out twice in court despite being advised not to.
Police - tipped off by an imam worried by the behaviour of one of the suspects - said it was the first known attack planned by Al Qaeda in Canada. The two could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
The case has raised questions about the extent of Shiite-led Iran's relationship with Al Qaeda, a predominantly Sunni Arab terrorist network. It also renewed attention on Iran's complicated history with the terror group, which ranges from outright hostility to alliances of convenience and even overtures by Tehran to assist Washington after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Canadian police said this week they did not think it was a case of state-sponsored terrorism.
Law officials in New York with knowledge of the investigation said the attack was to take place on the Canadian side of the border. They are not authorised to discuss the investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
Mr Norris has questioned the timing of the arrests, pointing to ongoing debates in the Canadian parliament over a new anti-terrorism law that would expand the powers of police and intelligence agencies.
The lawyer has noted that his client was a permanent resident of Canada who has lived there for 20 years. He refused to say where Mr Jaser was from, saying that revealing his nationality in the current climate amounted to demonising him.
Canadian police have declined to release the men's nationalities, saying only they had been in Canada a "significant amount of time". But a London-based newspaper, Al Arab, citing unnamed sources in the Arabian Gulf, has reported that Mr Jaser is a Jordanian passport holder with the full name Raed Jaser Ibrahim Amouri, who had visited the United Arab Emirates several times and most recently in September 2011. The newspaper reported that the suspect also visited other Gulf countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It was not possible to independently confirm the report.
Mr Esseghaier, in a profile on a university department website - which has since been removed - says he was born in Tunis, the Tunisian capital.
The investigation surrounding the planned attack was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security. Canadian police said the men never got close to carrying out the attack.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
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Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
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Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
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NO OTHER LAND
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Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
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First Test at Barbados
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One-and-a-half out of five stars
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
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Changing visa rules
For decades the UAE has granted two and three year visas to foreign workers, tied to their current employer. Now that's changing.
Last year, the UAE cabinet also approved providing 10-year visas to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least Dh10 million, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 per cent of the total. Investors can bring their spouses and children into the country.
It also approved five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams.
The government also said that leading academics, medical doctors, scientists, engineers and star students would be eligible for similar long-term visas, without the need for financial investments in the country.
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Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and "anti-style" by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
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Based: Tunisia
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4. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing 117
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 116
6. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing 67
7. Sergio Perez, Force India 56
8. Esteban Ocon, Force India 45
9. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso 35
10. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault 26