A Canadian who claimed to have joined ISIS and participated in terrorist acts was arrested and charged with making up this story.
The charges against Shehroze Chaudhry stem from numerous statements to the media, in which the 25-year-old
"claimed to have traveled to Syria in 2016 to join the terrorist group ISIS
(the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)
and commit terrorist acts
,
”
said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Saturday in a press release.
Shehroze Chaudhry, who lives in Burlington, in the Province of Ontario, was charged,
"following a lengthy investigation"
,
"incitement to terrorist hoax"
and will appear before a court on November 16, said the RCMP.
“Hoaxes can create a sense of fear among the public and give the illusion that there is a potential threat to Canadians when there is not.
Therefore, the RCMP takes these allegations very seriously, ”
said Superintendent Christopher deGale, head of the RCMP's Integrated National Security Team.
He added that this further diverted human and financial resources from
“other priorities”
.
Sherhoze Chaudhry, who used the alias "Abu Huzayfah", had told several media since 2016 that he had been part of ISIS's religious police in Syria, and had notably been a protagonist of the
New York Times'
"Calliphate" podcast
, according to Global News.
In 2018, during a question-and-answer session in the House of Commons, the Conservative opposition was surprised at the presence in the Toronto area of a man who claimed to have committed terrorist acts and called for his arrest.
