A man has been accused of making false statements about ties to Daesh. (Representative)
Montreal Canada:
Canadian authorities arrested and charged a man with repeatedly making false claims that he had traveled to Syria to join ISIS and committed horrific crimes, they said.
The charges against Shehroze Chaudhry, 25, stemmed from his allegations in the news media – including in a widely noted interview with the New York Times podcast The Caliphate – of a terrorist past, the Royal Mounted Police said on Friday. from Canada.
Chaudhry – who used the pseudonym Abu Huzayfah, according to Canada Global News – claimed to have traveled to Syria in 2016 to join the IS group and serve with its religious police.
He said he personally carried out at least two executions and witnessed other acts of violence.
RCMP said Chaudhry, who lives in the city of Burlington, Ontario, was charged after a lengthy investigation “in connection with a hoax concerning terrorist activity.”
He accused him of “raising public safety concerns among Canadians”.
“Hoaxes can instill fear in our communities and create the illusion that there is a potential threat to Canadians, when we have determined otherwise,” said Superintendent Christopher deGale, who heads the unit. RCMP national security.
“As a result, the RCMP takes these allegations very seriously.”
In 2018, during a question period in Canada’s House of Commons following the interview with the Chaudhry Caliphate, opposition conservatives expressed their outrage that he may still be free after making his repeated terrorist statements.
They demanded his arrest and, in a subsequent investigation, inconsistencies began to emerge in his accounts.
Chaudhry is scheduled to appear in court in Brampton, Ont., On Nov. 16, authorities said.
Canadian terrorism hoax laws carry a maximum penalty of five years.
The RCMP security unit is responsible for “investigating persons who have left Canada for the purpose of contributing to the activities of a terrorist group or who have returned to Canada after participating in the activities of a terrorist group” .
