Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali slipped into panic mode when the RCMP began to investigate concerns they were preparing to go to Syria to join ISIL, the prosecutor in the young couple’s trial said in her closing arguments to the jury on Tuesday.
Federal prosecutor Lyne Décarie was in the second day of her closing arguments at the Montreal courthouse when she highlighted text messages and Internet searches the young Montreal couple made in April 2015 immediately after the RCMP interviewed Djermane and just before both were arrested. The RCMP was investigating concerns, expressed by Djermane’s family, that she and Jamali were planning to leave Montreal and join ISIL in the terrorist group’s effort to create an Islamic state.
An RCMP investigator pretended to be inquiring about fellow students at Collège Maisonneuve who had already left for Syria when they first interviewed Djermane. But the couple’s reaction afterward shows they suspected there was much more behind the visit the RCMP made to the couple’s rented condo on Aird Ave.
To support her argument, Décarie asked the jury to consider text messages Jamali sent to Djermane. He incorrectly theorized it was Djermane’s mother who “snitched” on them. Jamali sent several text messages to Djermane stating he was convinced her mother was to blame. Djermane replied by texting that she doubted her mother was behind everything.
At that point, the couple had purchased new passports after seeing their parents hide theirs from them. They had also booked a flight for two to Greece that was set to depart early in May. In 2015, Greece was considered a popular starting point for people seeking to travel to Syria to join the terrorist group. However, the RCMP later found evidence, on a computer seized from the couple, that Djermane began to look into other options after the RCMP interviewed her. She is believed to have typed the search term “How to change a flight reservation” into a travel website’s search engine and then began making inquiries into booking a one-way flight to Algeria for one adult.
“Ask yourselves the question: What state of mind was Djermane in at that point? They already had tickets to Greece. Is she not panicking at this point? Ask yourselves that question,” Décarie said as part of her lengthy review of the evidence the jury heard over the course of the trial.
Décarie also highlighted how the evidence suggests that later that same day, Jamali began looking into what countries required travel visas.
The couple are accused of attempting to leave Canada with the goal of committing a terrorist act in another country, being in possession or in control of explosive substances and committing a criminal act for the benefit or under the direction of a terrorist group.
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