A Toronto delivery driver accused of dismembering a prisoner in Iraq nearly a decade ago has become the first suspected ISIS member to be charged with war crimes in Canada, experts say.
In an indictment filed in Ontario court, Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi is charged with four counts, including torture and murder, under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
The alleged incidents occurred during ISIS’s peak in 2014 and 2015. Three years later, Eldidi flew to Toronto and made one Refugee claim that was accepted. He is now a Canadian citizen.
Global News revealed Last summer, it was reported that Eldidi, a former Amazon driver originally from Egypt, was allegedly seen in a 2015 ISIS video using a sword to chop off a prisoner’s hands and feet.
“I can confirm that Ahmed Eldidi is charged with offenses under the Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act,” Nathalie Houle, spokeswoman for the Public Prosecutions of Canada, said on Monday.
The charges are a first for Canada, said Prof. Michael Nesbitt, associate dean of research at the University of Calgary’s law school and a leading expert on national security law.
“It’s a big deal,” he said.
As far as he is aware, 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 has predominantly resorted to war crimes laws for deportations and revocation of citizenship. In 2021, a resident of BC pleaded guilty on war crimes for promoting hatred against residents of the Katanga region in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Eldidi has already been charged with aggravated assault in connection with the alleged incident in Iraq, as well as terrorism charges related to a failed ISIS attack plan in Toronto, according to the RCMP.
But six months later, the Crown brought even more serious war crimes charges, accusing the 62-year-old of committing mutilations and “violations of personal dignity” during an 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 committed countless atrocities in Syria and Iraq, including the Yazidi genocide, but in 2019 it lost the last territory to Kurdish fighters and an international military coalition.
Since then there has been hardly anything standing in the way of this justice against ISIS members, including in Canada, where only a handful of those who returned home after serving in the group were prosecuted.
The majority of Canadian ISIS women who returned to BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec were arrested under peace bonds that restrict their freedom of movement but do not amount to criminal charges.
Eldidi’s alleged crimes were captured in a four-minute recording video Released in 2015 by the ISIS detachment in northwestern Iraq. Titled “Dissuading Spies,” it shows a prisoner making a confession before being led outside into a deserted area.
The prisoner is then shown hanging from a crucifix while a man wearing an ISIS hat hacks at his limbs with a sword. The public prosecutor’s office assumes that 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 application was accepted by the Immigration and Refugee Service and he was granted citizenship in May.
However, following a later tip-off 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 27-year-old son Mostafa after they allegedly recorded a video of them holding an ax and a machete and pledging allegiance to the Islamic State terror group.
The case has raised questions Gaps in the Canadian immigration security clearance system. The government defended its actions but said it was investigating the matter.
“The review is ongoing and further information will be communicated as it becomes available,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a statement last month.
At a Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security hearing In August, Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman questioned how “someone like this, who is a suspected ISIS terrorist,” could gain citizenship.
“Do you really think this is how the system should work? “Do you really believe that this is not a colossal failure of your government?” she said.
The number of ISIS-related investigations has increased rose Across Canada, 20 suspects were arrested this year and last, compared to just two in 2022.
Police and experts say youth are driving the surge in ISIS activity as the terror group recovers from its defeat in Syria in 2019.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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