Canadian authorities charged man for lying about joining the Islamic State

Canadian police have arrested a man on suspicion of lying about having joined Islamic State and committing execution-style killings.

Shehroze Chaudhry, 25, has been charged with “hoax-terrorist activity”, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said late on Friday (local time).

Starting in 2016, Mr Chaudhry made social media posts talking about his role with Islamic State and also gave several media interviews.

But a lengthy Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation found he had no links to the group.

“The charge stems from numerous media interviews where the accused … claimed he travelled to Syria in 2016 to join the terrorist group ISIS and committed acts of terrorism,” the RCMP said in a statement.

According to Global News, RCMP spokeswoman Sergeant Lucie Lapointe confirmed Mr Chaudhry was the Abu Huzayfah featured in the award-winning New York Times podcast Caliphate.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said he was interviewed by CBC News under what he said was his nom de guerre Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi.

In Caliphate, he claims to have executed two people as a member of Islamic State in Syria, but doubts were raised about his story, which contradicted what he told CBC News.

The RCMP said the interviews and podcasts that featured on a television documentary raised public safety concerns amongst Canadians.

“Hoaxes can generate fear within our communities and create the illusion there is a potential threat to Canadians, while we have determined otherwise,” RCMP Superintendent Christopher deGale said in a statement.

“As a result, the RCMP takes these allegations very seriously, particularly when individuals, by their actions, cause the police to enter into investigations in which human and financial resources are invested and diverted from other ongoing priorities.”

Mr Chaudhry will appear in an Ontario court on November 16.

If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

Rukmini Callimachi from the New York Times tweeted that “the narrative tension of our podcast ‘Caliphate’ is the question of whether his account is true … we explain the conflicting strands of his story, and what we can and can’t confirm”.

In one episode, reporter Andy Mills asks: “What if this turned out to be the weirdest case of catfishing?”

Huzayfah’s father denies his son is involved in a terrorist outfit, and Callimachi confronts him about, “whether this whole thing was an invention”.

He responds that he hopes the authorities think he is lying.

Many other Canadians have been charged with terrorism offences for joining Islamic State.

Source: ABC