Terrorism-related charges to be laid in Winnipeg

CBC News
Manitoba RCMP are set to announce Tuesday they have laid terrorism-related charges.

A news conference has been called for 9:30 a.m. CT at the RCMP headquarters in Winnipeg.

According to a Globe and Mail report, the RCMP allege the al-Qaeda members behind a 2009 plot to blow up packed subway cars in New York were trained by a University of Manitoba student who has disappeared from Canada.

The newspaper identifies the student as Ferid Imam.

His alleged accomplice is a fellow Winnipegger named Miawand Yar.

The RCMP obtained warrants for the two men from a Winnipeg judge on Monday, according to the Globe and Mail.

In August, CBC News reported that three missing U of M students — Imam, Yar and Muhannad al-Farekh — were the subject of a massive investigation that stretched all the way to the White House.

All three grew up in Winnipeg after their families moved to the city from other countries. They met and became friends at university but disappeared before completing their studies.

In 2007, they left the country together, destined for Pakistan via Europe, and dropped all contact with their families.

Secret briefings to U.S. presidents
According to a Globe and Mail story in August, the FBI had dispatched agents to the Middle East as part of its hunt for the men, who have been the subject of secret briefings to U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

The missing men have been spotted in Pakistan's Peshawar district, which is known as the gateway to the lawless tribal area bordering Afghanistan and suspected of sheltering senior members of al-Qaeda, according to the Globe and Mail, which reported on Tuesday that Imam is now being sought on terrorist-training charges as part of the alleged 2009 plot.

Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act, passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, allows police to charge people suspected of committing terrorist offences outside Canada’s borders. The case against Imam is the first time RCMP have charged someone with acts taking place entirely overseas, according to the newspaper.

Imam faces a life sentence if he is caught and convicted of training terrorists.

Yar could face up to 10 years in prison on a charge that he participated in a terrorist conspiracy.

The warrants taken out by the RCMP do not include Al-Farekh, according to the Globe and Mail.