Montreal: Marocain lie a des groupes "terroristes" !!!???

par catia_v5 10/05/10, 08:21 pm

MONTREAL - A Montreal man has collected Quebec government welfare cheques for almost 20 years, even as he criss-crossed Europe to meet six other men who’ve since been either killed, convicted or linked to global terrorism, lawyers for the RCMP and CSIS allege.

In recently filed court documents, government lawyers claim that while Mohamed Omary has been jobless and on the dole in Montreal since he arrived from Morocco.

Yet he still somehow found cash to repeatedly visit Europe between 1993 and 1999.

While overseas and in Montreal in the 1990s, Omary hob-nobbed with six men who’ve since become a who’s who of Islamic terrorists, the federal security agencies claim.

Omary, a father of four, denies any involvement in terrorism and has never been charged, though his brother-in-law has been kicked out of Canada on national security grounds.

Omary’s Montreal home was searched by police in 1999 at the request of French law enforcement and his telephone was also tapped for months in 2000, court records show.

Thierry Audin, a spokesman for Quebec’s Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale, declined comment on Omary’s case or status as a welfare recipient.

"This is personal information. We cannot make any comment whatsoever about this subject," Audin told QMI Agency.

Omary visited France, Germany, Holland, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and made several trips to Morocco and Turkey staying abroad a month at a time, including stays in at least one four star hotel, the RCMP and CSIS lawyers say in the court documents.

Omary also joined a shooting club in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil and learned to handle guns. In Bosnia, Omary even learned to fire an AK 47, while purportedly there as a humanitarian worker, the government claims.

Omary’s lawyer, Johanne Doyon, did not return telephone messages seeking comment for this story. A second lawyer, Alain Arsenault, referred calls to Doyon.

Last year, Omary sued the Canadian government for $1 million in Quebec Superior Court.

He claims that Canadian security officials tipped Moroccan authorities about a trip he was planning home to Morocco in January 2002 - just months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Omary, a citizen of Canada and Morocco, was arrested and detained by Moroccan authorities at the Casablanca airport. His Canadian passport was confiscated.

Omary also says he was prevented from returning to Montreal for two years as CSIS and Moroccan intelligence agents pressured him to become a confidential informant when he returned to Montreal. CSIS agents he identified as

"Claude and Christian" visited him in Morocco, scaring him and contributing to heart troubles, he added.

He wants damages from the Justice Department, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for what he claimed were lost wages as well as loss of liberty, stress, and family separation.

Omary’s lawsuit described him as "an IT worker by profession and a self-employed worker in Canada for several years."

In their reply, federal lawyers said neither RCMP nor CSIS officers knew Omary had left Canada for Morocco in January 2002, so they couldn’t have tipped off the Moroccan authorities.

They also said he failed to ask consular officials for a replacement Canadian passport for months, a move that could have allowed him to leave Morocco much sooner.

Omary’s claim for damages and lost wages is bogus, the federal lawyers said, noting that Omary lost little if anything financially, because he’s been on welfare since coming to Canada.

"Since the 1990s and to this day, Mr. Omary is a recipient of social assistance benefits and he has experienced no loss of revenue , damages, or any moral prejudice because of his trips to Morocco," the government states in court documents.

In the late 1990s, news reports linked Omary to an Islamic terrorist sleeper cell in Montreal.

When a French magistrate came to Montreal to question him, Omary refused to answer all questions about his acquaintances and clearly missed a chance to clear up any misunderstandings, the federal attorneys suggested.

andrew.mcintosh@agenceqmi.ca

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