A Quebec Court judge was informed on Friday that the young couple acquitted recently on terror-related charges are negotiating with the Crown on what conditions they can accept to live with while the RCMP continues to suspect they will commit a terrorist act.
Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali, both 20, made a brief appearance before Judge Karine Giguère at the Montreal courthouse on Friday while prosecutor Richard Roy offered a few details on the Crown’s efforts to get the couple to agree to a peace bond. Through such an agreement, the couple would live under a series of conditions (for example a curfew or travel restrictions) intended to address the RCMP’s concerns that Djermane and Jamali are likely to commit a terrorist act.
The case against the couple began in April 2015 as a request for a peace bond. But when members of an Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) searched residences where Djermane and Jamali had lived months before their arrests, the case became more serious. They uncovered a recipe to build a pressure cooker bomb and most of the materials required to assemble one. INSET also found evidence the couple were preparing to travel to Greece, a destination often used by people who intend to travel to Syria through Turkey. The investigation began after one of Djermane’s sisters contacted INSET and expressed concerns that her sibling was being drawn to ISIL. This was after some of Djermane’s fellow students at her CEGEP had already left for Syria.
In December, a jury found the couple not guilty on all of the terror-related charges they faced but Jamali was convicted of possessing an explosive substance without lawful excuse. He was sentenced to the time he had already served awaiting the outcome of his trial.
On Friday, Roy said Jamali’s lawyer, Tiago Murias, has prepared a contract and that the RCMP has been asked to review it. The prosecutor also said Djermane has been given an affidavit summarizing the evidence behind INSET’s request for the peace bond. Roy said Jamali wants to read the affidavit carefully before she takes a position on her case.
The case returns to court on April 23.