Mahmoud Jaballah

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Mahmoud Jaballah is an Egyptian, held, without charge, on a controversial Canadian "security certificate", since August 2001.^[1]

Jaballah, a father of six, said he had been a biology teacher prior to his incarceration.

1 Relationship with Ahmed Said Khadr
2 Suspicious pattern of travel
3 Prior detentions
4 References

[edit] Relationship with Ahmed Said Khadr

In late May of 2006 Jaballah's security certificate was being reviewed. He was given an opportunity to give his account of his relationship with Ahmed Said Khadr, a close associate of Osama Bin Laden who lived, for a while, in Toronto.

Jaballah described his relationship with Khadr as casual.^[1]^[2] He said his wife had bought the Khadr family groceries, when Khadr came to Canada as a refugee. He said he met Khadr when he dropped by to pick up items being given to his family during a period of time when Khadr's family was in need. And, consistent with Muslim charity, he offered Khadr some tea. He said Khadr only stayed about fifteen minutes.

[edit] Suspicious pattern of travel

The Toronto Star reports:

"A CSIS summary of evidence says Mahmoud Jaballah’s alleged travel pattern in the early 1990s was consistent with those of an Islamic mujahedeen extremist, and accuses him of fighting alongside terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya.^[2]"

Jaballah denied ever traveling to Afghanistan or Chechnya. ^[3] He acknowledged living in Pakistan between 1991 and 1994, where he was first a school teacher and then a school principal, in schools run by the International Islamic Relief Organization. The United States classifies the International Islamic Relief Organization as an organization that has ties to terrorism.

[edit] Prior detentions

Jaballah had been held on a Canadian security certificate in 1999. And he had been detained seven times in Egypt. One of his detentions was due to a charge that he participated in an assassination attempt on an Egyptian Minister. Jaballah was cleared of that charge when he was able to show he was in detention at the time of the attempt.

Jaballah attributes Canadian security official's suspicion to accepting tainted intelligence from Egyptian security officials.