Hersi claimed that he had been entrapped. Could you be entrapped into joining a jihad terror group? Is there anything, love or money or anything else, that could entice you to travel to Somalia to wage jihad? One would have to be disposed toward that sort of thing in the first place to be susceptible to being entrapped in this way, no?
“Mohamed Hersi jailed 10 years on terror charges,” by Michelle Shephard, Toronto Star, July 24, 2014 (thanks to Kenneth):
Mohamed Hersi, the first Canadian convicted of attempting to fight with a terrorist group abroad, was given the maximum sentence of 10 years Thursday morning in a Brampton courtroom.
Superior Court Justice Deena Baltman told the court in sentencing Hersi that “he betrayed both his family and his country.”
Hersi sat in the prisoner’s dock often shaking his head or holding it in his hands as Baltman read out the facts of the case and her reasons for the stringent sentence.
Canada’s spy service and the RCMP had closely watched Hersi’s prosecution as they deal with the threat of Canadians who have been drawn to conflict zones abroad – and tracking them as they return home.
Somalia, where prosecutors said Hersi was headed, had been popular a destination for a small group of Canadians, some of whom quickly rose among the ranks of the East African terrorist group, Al Shabab.
One high-profile case involved Mahad Dhore, a Somalia-born York University student who left his home in 2009 and didn’t publicly surface again until last year, when he led a group of suicide bombers on an attack at a Mogadishu courthouse, killing more than 30.
More recently, the fear has been the involvement of Canadians fighting in Syria, where a new generation of Al Qaeda militants have overpowered the Western-backed groups that have struggled since 2011 to topple the Bashir Assad regime.
New Canadian legislation was introduced last year that criminalized travel for the purpose of terrorism – broadening the law under which Hersi was charged.
Civil rights groups argued at the time it gave the police too much power. Security services, however, welcomed the addition to the Criminal Code, saying they had lacked the legal tools needed to deal with a growing problem….
Hersi was arrested without having left Canada, and argued during the trial that he was not destined for Somalia and had been set up — “entrapped” — by the undercover police officer who befriended him in the case and provided the bulk of the crown’s evidence.The case began in September 2010 with the discovery of a USB stick at a dry cleaner in a bag of clothing. An employee became concerned about the contents on the memory drive – including a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook – and contacted police.
An investigation was launched and six months later Hersi was arrested at Toronto’s Pearson airport with a ticket to Cairo. He maintains he was going to Egypt to study Arabic but prosecutors say it was a stopover on his journey to Somalia.
Paul Slansky, Hersi’s lawyer has said he will appeal the May 30 conviction of the two offences – attempting to participate in terrorist activity and counselling another (the undercover officer, who cannot be identified) to do the same.
But Crown attorneys Iona Jaffe and James Clark had urged Baltman to give Hersi the maximum 10-year prison term, not only punishing him for his conviction, but also to use the sentence as a message to others.