Quebec terror trial adjourned until Jan. 23 for confession arguments

MONTREAL — The Crown rested its case Friday at the trial of a Quebecer charged with attempting to leave the country to participate in the activities of a terrorist group.

Ismael Habib, 29, is also charged with giving false information in order to obtain a passport.

The trial was adjourned until Jan. 23, when lawyers will debate the admissibility of a confession by Habib extracted by an undercover police officer last February when Habib said he intended to join Islamic State in Syria.

Habib’s lawyer, Charles Montpetit, has suggested it was obtained in a Mr. Big-type operation where officers pose as criminals to obtain confessions.

Canada’s highest court ruled in 2014 such operations are acceptable under very strict conditions, but tend to produce unreliable evidence.

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The RCMP scenario for Habib involved reeling him into a fictitious crime organization specializing in counterfeit passports and a fake human-smuggling ring.

On Friday, the Mountie who designed the elaborate scenarios was the final prosecution witness as he provided details from behind a divider about a civilian source used to reel in Habib.

The RCMP handler, under cross-examination by Habib’s lawyer, described the source, a Muslim man in his 40s who was paid per piece of information.

The source is a practising Salafist — an ultra conservative branch of Islam — who operated a second-hand clothing store where many members of the Muslim community gravitated.

Described as a “mentor,” the man was used to gain Habib’s trust and steer him to the collection of RCMP agents in the sting.

Upon learning Habib had gone to Syria in 2013 and returned, the civilian source raised concerns, without proof, that Habib might be a sleeper agent returning to commit a terror act.

An RCMP document filed in the case suggests the force wanted to discover where he was trained, why he’d returned to Canada, what his intentions were and whether he presented a public security risk.

The RCMP handler testified they were trying to confirm information they already had about Habib.

“The objective was for Mr. Habib to give a declaration that was in line with the information investigators already had on him,” he told the court. “Our goal was to get the truth.”

Habib has been detained since February after a domestic assault charge in Gatineau, Que., one that ended the RCMP sting because he was then behind bars.

The trial heard he’d allegedly threatened to blow up his former girlfriend’s car if she spoke of his plan to get to his wife and children overseas.

The court set aside March 6, 8 and 10 for the continuation of the trial.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press