Montreal father of would-be jihadi hid passports to try to keep son home

Newly released court documents show how the families of two Montreal would-be jihadis,Merouane Ghalmi and Daniel Darko, reacted very differently from one another when they learned their sons tried to travel to Syria to fight.

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Ghalmi, 24, and Darko, 28, were sent back to Canada withinweeks ofleaving the country in January 2015, after being denied entry to Turkey.

Although the pair were nevercharged in connection with their travels, police weresuccessfulin theirbid to have the two mensignpeace bonds and agreeto several conditions, including the wearing of electronic monitoring bracelets for one year conditions that expired last spring.

The documents releasedWednesday are sworn statements from an RCMPofficer, based on interviews withthe two men and their families. The officerbelieved the two were a threat to national security.

Heraffidavitwaspresented in 2015 at the peace-bond hearing and wasonly made publicafter some media outlets, including the CBC, fought in court to have pertinentdocumentsreleased.

Pair made it as far as Turkey

Ghalmi, 24and Darko, 28, were friends who shared a common interest in radical Islam and fighting in Syria.

The documents show that in January 2015, Ghalmi invited Darko to come with him to Syria. The two travelled to KualaLumpur, Malaysia, and then purchased tickets to fly to Istanbul.

Ghalmi later admitted to police they did this on purpose to, in his words, "shuffle the cards."

The RCMP officer testified that an Islamic State "howto" manual posted online suggested this as a tacticfor westerners travelling to Syria, stating:"For safety reasons they buy a ticket for an indirect holiday country so their destination doesn't look suspicious."

The two were ultimately refused entry into Turkey. They made their way back to Montreal and were arrested for questioning at Trudeau airport a week later.

Jihad 'legitimate'

Ghalmi was open with investigators about his motives. He later toldthemhis priority in life was to leave Canada to liveon "Muslim soil."He said he felt judged as a Muslimin Montreal because of his long beard and his lifestyleand said of Muslims living in Western countries,"You can't mix oil with vinegar."

Ghalmi describedjihad in Syria as "legitimate"and said that to die as a martyr was the best death.

Investigators describedDarkoas "arrogant and mocking" during his interrogationsand said they caught him in several lies.

Darko's family in denial

Investigators also questioned the two men's families, and they, too,reacted very differently from one another to the circumstances.

Darko's father, Samuel Darko,met investigators briefly a few weeks after his sonreturned from Turkey. He told investigators that Danielhad travelled to Malaysia without his knowledge, butthat he had gonethere to help Muslims andhe had apologized for leaving.

A few weekslater, Darko's mother, EmilieTetteh, told investigators that her son had told her he had travelled to Malaysia for a one-week holiday. She "categoricallyrefused" to believe her son had travelled to Turkey.

Tetteh told investigators that if she had noticed changes in her son's behaviour or suggestions that he'd been involved in illegal activity, she would have notified police. She said she was sure that her son was not lying to police.

Investigators wrote in their notes they believedTetteh's refusalto acknowledge that her son had travelled to Turkey demonstrated that her need to protect her son outweighed her ability to face the facts.

They were convinced she would never report her son to the police.

Ghalmi's family alertauthorities

Ghalmi's family, meanwhile, had been aware ofhis interest in radical Islam and his wish to travel to Syria for years, and they went to great lengths to prevent him from doing so.

Ghalmi had tried to travel to Syria in 2013.He had reached the border town of Adana before his father, BrahimGhalmi, learned he was there and alerted Turkish authorities. Ghalmi was arrested and detained in Turkey. His father travelled there to pick him up and bring him home to Montreal.

After that, Brahim Ghalmi said, he hid his son's Algerian and Canadian passports, fearing that he would try to leave again.

Brahim Ghalmitold investigators that his son told him he wanted to travel to Syria to do humanitarian work. Ghalmi told the RCMP that "he didn't believe a single word."

In January 2015, Merouane Ghalmi found the passports that his father had hidden,and that's when he set out for Syria a second time.

The day after he left the family home, Ghalmi's sister Imene contacted police and alerted them of her suspicions that he was on his way to Syria to fight.

Both men free

Darko and Ghalmi are no longer subject to the conditions of the peace bonds, includingthe wearing of electronic monitoring bracelets, as those conditions expired in the spring of 2016.

The RCMP did not request they be renewed.

Neither man has ever faced charges, although a spokesperson for the RCMP saidthe two are still under investigation.