Canadian sentenced to 9 years in prison for trying to join ISIS

World

Published: 2017-09-30 14:26

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 17:40


Canadian sentenced to 9 years in prison for trying to join ISIS
Canadian sentenced to 9 years in prison for trying to join ISIS

A Canadian man was sentenced to nine years in prison on Friday, after he tried to leave the country to join the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).

Twenty-Nine-year-old Ismael Habib was found guilty under a law banning people from leaving Canada to commit a terrorist act. He has become the first person to be found guilty under this law.

Habib has been sentenced to eight years in prison under a 2013 terrorism law, and for an extra year for obtaining a forged passport.

He will spend six and a half years in prison, as he has already served time in remand.

Quebec Court Judge Serge Delisle said that this act was done with perfect knowledge of the objectives of ISIS.

"The offender multiplied his efforts to get to Syria to join the Islamic State," Judge Delisle said.

Habib was detained in Turkey and deported to Canada, according to Middle East Eye.

However, the defense argued that police tricked him into confessing that he wanted to travel overseas to join ISIS and die in the name of God.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor Francois Blanchette said that Habib's sentence "is a relatively harsh punishment.”