B.C. man acquitted on terror charges is security risk: RCMP officer
VANCOUVER — The Facebook posts of a British Columbia man acquitted of terrorism-related charges clearly show he wasn’t just a “couch jihadist” with a big mouth but someone who was becoming radicalized by the Islamic State group and advocating for lone wolf attacks, an RCMP officer has testified.
Const. Tarek Mokdad of the force’s national security division told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Monday that he was involved in the investigation of Othman Hamdan before his arrest in Fort St. John, B.C., in 2015.
Mokdad said he wrote a report in 2015 based on the history of Islamic extremism and jihad and another last year on 85 of Hamdan’s Facebook posts.
He referenced both reports at the hearing and said he testified at Hamdan’s trial in B.C. Supreme Court, but the reports were not entered as evidence at the proceedings.