A Toronto delivery driver accused of dismembering a prisoner in Iraq nearly a decade ago has become the first suspected ISIS member to face war crimes charges in Canada, experts said.
An indictment filed in Ontario court charged Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi with four counts, including torture and murder, under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
The alleged incidents occurred during the height of ISIS in 2014 and 2015. Three years later, Eldidi flew to Toronto and conducted refugee claim it was accepted. He is now a Canadian citizen.
Global news exposed last summer, Eldidi, a former Amazon driver originally from Egypt, was allegedly seen in a 2015 ISIS video slashing the arms and legs of a prisoner with a sword.
"I can confirm that Ahmed Eldidi is charged with crimes under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act," Nathalie Houle, a spokeswoman for the Canadian public prosecutor's office, said Monday.
The charges are a first in Canada, said Professor Michael Nesbitt, associate dean for research at the University of Calgary's law school and a leading expert on national security law.
"It's a pretty big deal," he said.
To his knowledge, Canadian prosecutors have never before used the war crimes law against a suspect for alleged crimes committed on Islamic State territory, he said.
Rather, Canada mostly used war crimes laws for deportations and revocation of citizenship. BC resident in 2021 he pleaded guilty war crimes for promoting hatred against the people of the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Eldidi has already been charged with aggravated assault for the alleged incident in Iraq, as well as terrorism charges for what RCMP say was a disrupted ISIS plot in Toronto.
But six months later, the Crown brought more serious war crimes charges, accusing the 62-year-old of mutilation and "insults to personal dignity" during the armed conflict.
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The victim is not named in the indictment obtained by Global News, but is described as a "protected person in a non-international armed conflict."
The charges were approved on December 11 by George Dolhai, Canada's deputy attorney general.
ISIS has committed unspeakable atrocities in Syria and Iraq, including the genocide of the Yazidis, but in 2019 it lost the last of its territory to Kurdish fighters and an international military coalition.
Since then, there has been little in the way justice against ISIS members, including in Canada, where only a handful of those who have returned home after serving with the group have been prosecuted.
Most of the Canadian ISIS women who returned to BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec were arrested on peace bonds, which restrict their movement but do not constitute criminal charges.
Eldidi's alleged crimes were captured within four minutes video issued in 2015 by the ISIS branch in northwestern Iraq. Titled "Deterring Spies", it shows a prisoner confessing before being led out into a deserted area.
The prisoner is then shown hanging from a crucifix while a man wearing an ISIS hat slashes his appendages with a sword. Prosecutors say the man wielding the sword is Eldidi.
Despite his alleged past in Iraq, Eldidi was able to fly into Toronto's Pearson Airport in 2018. His refugee claim was accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Board and he became a citizen in May.
However, after a subsequent tip from French authorities, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team launched an investigation.
Police arrested Eldidi and his son Mostafa, 27, after they allegedly filmed a video of themselves holding an ax and machete and pledging allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
The case raised questions about spaces in Canada's immigration security screening system. The government defended its actions but said it was reviewing the matter.
"The review is ongoing and more information will be shared as it becomes available," Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said last month.
In the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security hearing in August, Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman asked how "someone like this who is an alleged ISIS terrorist" could get citizenship.
“Do you really think this is how the system should work? Do you really think this is not a colossal failure of your government? she said.
The number of ISIS-related investigations has she exploded across Canada, 20 suspects were arrested this year and last year, compared to just two in 2022.
Police and experts say young people are driving the rise in ISIS activity as the terror group bounces back from defeat in Syria in 2019.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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