Canada's federal police arrested a Toronto area man for seeking to join the Shebab, a Somalian group bent on "terrorist activities," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Wednesday. Mohamed Hersi, 25, was arrested at the Toronto airport on Tuesday.
The Canadian appeared in a Brampton, Ontario court on Wednesday to face charges of "attempting to participate in terrorist activity" and "providing counsel to a person to participate in terrorist activity." The RCMP alleged that "he was about to board a plane bound for Cairo, Egypt transiting through London, England, to then go to Somalia."
There, the accused planned to join the Shebab and "participate in their terrorist activities," the RCMP said. The Shebab is listed by the Canadian government as a banned terrorist organisation, and so any participation in the group is illegal under Canadian law.
RCMP Inspector Keith Finn told a press conference Hersi's arrest came nearly six months after the launch of a probe into "domestic radicalisation associated with al Qaeda-related extremist ideology." He noted the help of a national security community outreach initiative engaging Canada's ethnic, cultural and religious communities for offering investigators leads in the case. Hersi is to remain in custody until his next court appearance on Friday.