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Wassim Boughadou is wanted by the RCMP for terrorism. He insists he is \u201cabsolutely\u201d willing to fly home from Turkey to surrender to police.<\/p>\n
But the Montreal-born 34-year-old claims he can\u2019t because Global Affairs Canada<\/a> won\u2019t let him.<\/p>\n \u201cI am in a limbo,\u201d he wrote in a text message, part of a cache of documents obtained by Global News that have gone unreported until now.<\/p>\n The RCMP and Global Affairs Canada would not comment on Boughadou. His Ottawa lawyer also declined to comment.<\/p>\n The case, however, is detailed in hundreds of pages of court records that show how Ottawa is struggling to deal with Canadian citizens captured abroad during the Syrian conflict.<\/p>\n Canadians in Syria, Iraq and Turkey have asked the courts to order the government to repatriate them. Intelligence officials warn<\/a> that some of them are national security threats.<\/p>\n The debate over whether to bring them back or leave them overseas has left a growing list of Canadians wanted for terrorism<\/a> \u2014 but not so badly that the government has helped them come home.<\/p>\n According to an appeal Boughadou filed in the Federal Court, he was arrested in Turkey in 2017 and imprisoned for being a member of a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n He claims he was forced to sign a statement that said he was part of the Islamic State, but denied he was in the group, although he said his wife was.<\/p>\n Once he completed his sentence in March 2024, Turkey ordered his deportation and he bought a seat on a flight from Istanbul to Montreal that was to arrive on May 15 of that year.<\/p>\n On that same date, Quebec court records show the RCMP national security team in Montreal obtained a warrant for Boughadou\u2019s arrest on the grounds that he might commit a terrorist offence.<\/p>\n Boughadou\u2019s family notified the government about the flight booking, but Canadian embassy officials in Ankara would not renew his expired passport.<\/p>\n Three more times in 2025, he tried to fly home, but without a travel document, he had to abandon the trips, according to the files.<\/p>\n Canadian officials last denied his repatriation request on Nov. 6. 2025, saying Turkey was alleging he had escaped from detention and was a fugitive, which he denies.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the absence of a passport or travel document, the applicant does not have permission to board an international flight,\u201d his lawyer, Yavar Hameed, told the court.<\/p>\n If not for the government\u2019s \u201cobstruction and delay,\u201d Boughadou would have been back in Canada more than a year ago, according to the lawyer.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tIraqi security forces lead suspected Islamic State militants for questioning, after they were transferred from Syria to Iraq, at Al-Karkh Central Prison in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hadi Mizban).\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n The former Montreal computer programming student is not the only one fighting in court to get home, as the government responds to those it calls Canadian Extremist Travellers (CETs).<\/p>\n The families of four Canadian men held in Syria as suspected ISIS members also took the government to court, but a 2023 ruling said Ottawa had no obligation to repatriate them.<\/p>\n In January, the mother of a Canadian held in Syria asked the Federal Court to order the government to bring home her son, who was identified only as S.S.<\/p>\n Iraqi officials said in February<\/a> that they were holding an undisclosed number of Canadians while they investigated their alleged involvement in ISIS.<\/p>\n The Canadian Security Intelligence Service addressed the situation in its May 1 annual report, which referred to the \u201cpossible repatriation to Canada\u201d of ISIS members held overseas.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsent of sufficient mitigation measures, CSIS assessed that some of these CETs would likely pose national security and public safety risks,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n The RCMP said in a statement to Global News that managing the dangers posed by returning extremists was one of its priorities.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the RCMP becomes aware of an individual\u2019s return to Canada, we collaborate with a range of government of Canada departments and agencies, as well as law enforcement and community partners, to assess and mitigate potential risks,\u201d the police force said in a statement.<\/p>\n Responses are guided by \u201crobust\u201d threat assessments and can include terrorism charges or peace bonds that restrict the movements of suspects.<\/p>\n \u201cThe RCMP can also engage with a returnee and their family to open up dialogue, to help support the individual\u2019s disengagement from their radical ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tBrother-in-law says they went to Syria together\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tFree Syrian Army fighter, Azaz, Syria, Dec. 17, 2012. (AP Photo\/Virginie Nguyen Hoang, File).\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n A Canadian of Algerian descent, Boughadou was allegedly part of a group of Montreal youths who were seen engaging in what appeared to be military-style training at a Quebec shooting range before leaving for the Middle East.<\/p>\n At the time, the civil war in Syria was becoming a magnet for extremists from around the world, and the Montreal group attracted police attention.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were disenfranchised young people that got together, they radicalized,\u201d former RCMP assistant commissioner Ches Parsons said in an interview.<\/p>\n Now retired from policing, Parsons was the RCMP\u2019s director general of national security when Boughadou and his associates were on the radar of counter-terrorism investigators.<\/p>\n He said the \u201cCote-des-Neiges crew,\u201d named after a Montreal neighbourhood, felt they weren\u2019t accepted in Canada, and \u201cfound their way overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n Some went to Syria to join armed Islamist groups, but \u201cwhen they get over there, they find that war is not what they thought it would be,\u201d said Parsons, a partner at Pearl Strategic Counsel.<\/p>\n Boughadou left Canada in 2012. In an interview with La Presse, he said his departure was precipitated by the confiscation of his firearms by police, but denied supporting ISIS.<\/p>\n He claimed that as a Muslim, he was not accepted in Quebec, \u201cespecially if you have a political vision of Islam that they don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to go and help someone who is oppressed, you don\u2019t have the right. When you are oppressed, you must defend yourself,\u201d he reportedly said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe must fight to defend Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to the Canadian government\u2019s definition, yes, I\u2019m a radical. I won\u2019t lie,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut in my eyes, I\u2019m not a radical. I\u2019m not an extremist.\u201d<\/p>\n Ismael Habib knew Boughadou because their wives were sisters. He said Boughadou warned him before leaving Canada that police suspected them both of terrorism.<\/p>\n Concerned, Habib joined Boughabou in Turkey and they crossed the border into Syria, he said in statements following his arrest.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tIsmael Habib.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n They stayed in territory controlled by the Free Syrian Army, the Islamist group Ahrar Ash-Sham and a band of Chechens, Habib said.<\/p>\n Both bought AK-47s and were photographed \u201cin combat gear, with Boughadou wearing a bulletproof vest and the accused sporting a long knife at his waist,\u201d according to the court.<\/p>\n In his testimony, Habib downplayed the trip to Syria, but the court said he was not credible and had gone there for \u201cjihad,\u201d spending three months with the armed groups.<\/p>\n![\"Ismael](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bcvomg9p-1.jpeg\")
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