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Toronto 18 terrorist leader gets parole after RCMP interrogation to show he isn't a threat

The intense scrutiny of Zakaria Amara's radicalization and subsequent deradicalization while in prison for the past 17 years was his idea. And it paid off

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Zakaria Amara, leader of an al-Qaida-inspired terrorist plot to explode truck bombs in Ontario in 2006, recently faced two days of interrogation by RCMP national security investigators to assess what threat he might still pose as he sought release on parole.

The intense scrutiny of his radicalization and subsequent deradicalization while in prison for the past 17 years was his idea, one he hoped would fill a gap for the Parole Board of Canada in deciding if he was ready to be released. It was unprecedented, the hearing was told.

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His effort paid off, Thursday.

Amara, 37, once a fiery leader of what became known as the Toronto 18 terror plots, was granted three months of day parole to a halfway house in Toronto.

The decision came awkwardly.

The two-member parole panel returned from deliberation to deny him parole, instead wanting to first see how he handles temporary leaves from prison. Amara’s lawyer, Nancy Charbonneau, interrupted to say the 60-day temporary leave program was no longer available, so the hearing adjourned while the panel reconsidered.

When they returned, panel chairman Doug Kirkpatrick said the board would split the difference — instead of the usual six-months parole, they would grant him three months to a halfway house to undergo a post-release program and prove himself.

“Thank you very much,” Amara said in response. “I beg you, from the bottom of my heart, I don’t want you to go to your bed tonight anxious about me…. I don’t want you to worry about me, because you’re not going to be hearing anything bad about me in the future.”

“We certainly hope not,” Kirkpatrick said. “For no personal reason, I hope we don’t see you again.”

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Amara made a plea to the parole board earlier in his hearing.

“I just hope to go back to society. I want to be a contributing member,” Amara said. “I don’t want to be ashamed for the rest of my life. I don’t want my family to be ashamed for the rest of their lives. And the Muslim community.

“I’d really like an opportunity to fix what I did wrong 17 years ago,” he said from Warkworth Institution, a medium-security prison in Ontario, where he is serving a life sentence for participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion for the benefit of a terrorist group.

Amara was one of 18 people arrested in a shocking anti-terrorism probe in 2006 that uncovered two connected mass-casualty plots targeting Toronto and Ottawa.

Amara emerged as a hardline, leading figure in the failed effort.

At his hearing, Amara, slender and fit, sat passively through most of his hearing in a white T-shirt and blue jeans, his dark hair and beard trimmed short. He maintained the practiced stillness and neutral expression of a long-term inmate. When he spoke, his hands showed his emphasis.

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But when talking of the support of his family, particularly his sister, while he was imprisoned in the Special Handling Unit, Canada’s highest security prison, he broke down.

“I literally owe her my life. I’m going to try not to cry,” Amara said before failing dramatically. He bowed his head almost to his lap, covered his face with his hands and wept.

“I was in a really dark place,” he said after a few moments. “I was really closed off, I pushed everybody away, especially in the first years. She was wise enough to just wait and it if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here today.”

He also spoke of his daughter, who has lived her 17 years entirely while Amara has been in prison, and of his parents, who now live abroad.

I don’t want to be ashamed for the rest of my life. I don’t want my family to be ashamed for the rest of their lives

Canada’s corrections system has struggled to deal with religiously radicalized inmates incarcerated for terrorism. The phenomenon is relatively recent and the cases few.

This leaves inmates in institutional limbo, without programs in prison to help manage their special risks and motivation, and no tools to assess their progress when applying for release.

Typically, the parole board finds comfort in actuarial measures — just like an insurance company — based on statistical amalgamation of similar offenders. For jihadist terrorists, there are too few in Canada to make such empirically meaningful measures.

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At Amara’s previous parole hearing, last year, he was denied release in large part because of the absence of such information.

“I realized this would always be a problem,” Amara said.

Preparing for his next try, Amara volunteered to speak to members of the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) — he called it an interrogation — with an understanding a report would be shared with the parole board, his hearing was told.

“I was confident because I knew I had changed,” he said.

The RCMP’s report, based on two full days of speaking with Amara, was not made public. The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) and the parole board have not seen the full report. It was summarized in a letter from an RCMP Chief Superintendent, with information deemed sensitive to national security removed.

Robin Lukezich, a CSC institutional parole officer assigned to Amara’s case, said the RCMP documented Amara’s radicalization and deradicalization in three sections: his childhood, his crime and the aftermath.

“INSET officers verbally informed Mr. Amara’s parole officer of their belief that Mr. Amara is no longer radicalized and the changes in his attitudes, values and beliefs appear to be long-term,” Lukezich said.

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“The RCMP have not indicated any immediate concerns with day parole in this case.”

A psychological report on Amara came to a similar conclusion.

The report “emphasized the importance of culture, ethnicity and religious issues in understanding terrorist activity,” Lukezich said. “It is important to consider the political climate during the commission of the index offenses, which includes the war on terror in the time following 9/11.

“Mr. Amara cited Canada’s involvement in the U.S-led military ventures in Afghanistan and Iraq as motivation.”

Apparently quoting the psychological report, she told the parole board: “This entire minority population had to live under a cloud of suspicion where the actions of the 9/11 perpetrators were reduced to their religious beliefs, painting all Muslims as political terrorists which ultimately transformed the lives of Canadian Muslims.”

The stigmatization and loss of dignity “would be particularly damaging and alienating for a young man such as Mr. Amara,” Lukezich said.

Lack of critical thinking skills, difficulty dealing with emotions and fragile family ties may have “increased vulnerability to adopting violent extremism.”

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Amara told the parole board the atrocities of Islamic State jihadists in the more recent fighting — known as ISIL or ISIS — drove him to re-evaluate and reject his radical beliefs. He realized he could separate his ideology from his religion, and keep his faith and reject violent extremism.

“I built a new map of reality and I’m there now.”

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