He has one son who is required to “stay away” from the Islamic State and another who left Canada to join the Islamic State. But the judge was “satisfied Uddin did not intend to obstruct justice when he got rid of the rifle.” How did she know for sure?
“Father of man on terror peace bond given conditional discharge after tossing son’s AR-15 into garbage chute,” by Stewart Bell, National Post, October 12, 2016:
TORONTO — A Toronto father was sentenced to a conditional discharge Wednesday for improperly disposing of an AR-15 “assault-type rifle” belonging to his son, the subject of a terrorism peace bond that requires him to stay away from ISIL.
Mohammad Uddin, 57, was arrested after he admitted five months ago to breaking apart his son Kadir Abdul’s restricted semi-automatic rifle and dropping it down the garbage chute at the family’s east Toronto apartment building.
At the time, the Toronto Police Service was investigating after Kadir and an alleged associate, Samuel Aviles, suddenly flew to Turkey, where they were both arrested about 200 kilometres from the Syrian border.
The charges against Uddin were relatively minor: he faced two counts stemming from his handling of what police described as a “Windham Weaponry AR-15 assault-type rifle” between March 24 and April 28.
But during the proceedings at Toronto’s College Park courthouse, prosecutors disclosed that the rifle was actually owned by Uddin’s son Kadir, who is one of a handful of Canadians arrested on ISIL-related terrorism peace bonds.
In addition, it emerged in court that Uddin was also the father of Malik Abdul, a member of a Toronto extremist network who left Canada two years ago to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and is believed to have since died in Syria.
The firearms case has raised questions about why Kadir owned an AR-15 and how he was able to obtain a permit to purchase it. Asked outside the courtroom Wednesday why he had owned a restricted rifle, Kadir did not respond.
Toronto police have also declined to comment. The RCMP said firearms owners were subjected to “continuous eligibility screening,” but would not comment on how Kadir was able to obtain a firearms licence.
Police conducted a search for the rifle after Kadir, 27, flew to Istanbul on March 23, but they could not find it. At Uddin’s sentencing hearing, the Crown said that when his son disappeared the father found the rifle and ammunition in a lockbox in a bedroom.
Uddin got rid of it and later admitted to police what he had done. “He simply wanted it out of his home,” the prosecution said. Defence lawyer Anser Farooq said the former retail store worker had “taken responsibility at a very early stage.”
Kadir and Aviles were arrested in Turkey on March 31 due to concerns they were on their way to Syria. They were deported to Toronto on April 15 and arrested at Pearson airport. Uddin accompanied Kadir to his initial court appearances in Brampton, Ont., but was then arrested himself on May 18.
Uddin pleaded guilty to one firearms count. The second was dismissed. “The mistake that I made, I made because I didn’t understand and I’ll never do it again,” Uddin said at his sentencing hearing, speaking through a Bengali-language interpreter.
The judge said she was satisfied Uddin did not intend to obstruct justice when he got rid of the rifle. He also co-operated with police and was remorseful, she said. She also noted he had no prior record, had health problems, lived on an Ontario disability pension and had “minimal work experience and limited education.”…