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Great White North

Student jailed for terrorism returns to Canada

2013-07-29

A Canadian jailed in Mauritania for trying to join an Al-Qaeda training camp in neighboring Mali has been released and is back in Canada. Aaron Yoon, who is of Korean descent and a convert to Islam from Catholicism, arrived in Toronto. He had served almost two years in Nouakchott after being convicted in July last year. Yoon had been detained in December 2011 when he tried to visit the camps of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Mali, according to an indictment against him. He denied any links to terrorism, saying he had come to Mauritania from Morocco to study the Koran and learn Arabic, but Mauritanian authorities contended he had "strong links with AQIM terrorists and his plan to join the movement is indisputable." The same month, two of Yoon's former schoolmates who grew up with him in London, Ontario and traveled abroad with him were among 29 militants and their 38 hostages killed during a days-long siege and rescue operation at an Algerian gas plant. Canadian police and intelligence have said they may wish to speak with Yoon.

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Africa North

Mauritania frees Canadian AQIM member

2013-07-16

[MAGHAREBIA] A Mauritanian appellate court on Sunday (July 14th) released a Canadian jailed for attempting to attend an al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) training camp in Mali, AFP reported. Aaron Yoon, 25, was convicted last July and sentenced to a two-year prison term. Earlier media reports suggested that Yoon was friends with two Canadian terrorists killed by Algerian security forces during the siege at the In Anemas gas complex last January.

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Africa North

Mauritanian Court Frees Canadian 'Qaida Trainee'

2013-07-15

[AnNahar] A Mauritanian court on Sunday freed a Canadian tossed in the clink Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for attempting to join an al-Qaeda training camp in neighboring Mali, a judicial source said. Aaron Yoon was serving two years in Nouakchott after being convicted in July last year when he was 24, but his sentence was reduced in an appeal brought by the prosecution who were asking for the term to be extended to 10 years, the source said. "The Canadian Aaron Yoon was sentenced by an appeals court on Sunday to a year and a half in prison but he has already spent this time in jail and must therefore leave the penitentiary immediately," the source told Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity. Yoon, who is of Korean descent, was nabbed Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! in December 2011 when he tried to visit the camps of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Mali, according to the indictment against him. He denied any link to terrorism, saying he had come to Mauritania from Morocco to study the Koran and learn Arabic, but the authorities maintained he had "strong links with AQIM forces of Evil and his plan to join the movement is indisputable." "We cannot say how and when but he must leave the prison and will probably be removed from the country," the judicial source said. Mauritania shares over 2,200 kilometers (1,350 miles) of border with Mali, where a French-led military operation was launched against armed Islamist groups in January, driving them out of cities in the country's vast desert north.

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Africa North

Mauritanian policeman sentenced for terrorism

2013-05-16

[MAGHAREBIA] A Nouakchott court on Tuesday (May 14th) sentenced a policeman to 10 years of hard labour for collaboration with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Akhbar reported. Abdallahi Ould Mohamed Ghailany, who served as a guard at Salah Eddine prison, facilitated communication between salafist inmates and hard boyz outside the jail. This was reportedly the first time for a member of the Mauritanian security services to be tried and sentenced for links with AQIM. In related counter-terrorism news, four students from the University of Aïoune received up to five years in jail for plotting hard boyz acts, ANI reported. Prosecutors on Tuesday also demanded a ten-year jail term for a Canadian convicted of attempting to join an al-Qaeda training camp in neighbouring Mali, a judicial source told AFP. Aaron Yoon is serving two years in Nouakchott after being convicted last year when he was 24, but prosecutors have appealed for a longer sentence. Yoon, who is of Korean descent, was tossed in the slammer Book 'im, Mahmoud! in December 2011 when he tried to visit AQIM camps in Mali, according to the indictment against him.

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Great White North

Ontario Islam convert held in Mauritania suspected of radical links: local report

2013-04-05

An Ontario who converted to Islam and traveled to Africa has been detained for eight months in Mauritania's capital, on suspicions that he is associated with radicals, according to a local weekly. Aaron Yoon, of London, Ont., is a former high-school friend of two Canadians who died in January's terrorist strike in Algeria. A July 29, 2012, article by the Mauritanian periodical Al Houriya says Mr. Yoon was held at the central prison in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital. The article said Mr. Yoon was held on suspicion he is a jihadi with the hardline Salafist movement. It said he suffered from a urinary infection but couldn't get medical treatment so inmates dropped him near the prison gate and left him there unconscious. See? SEE? Praying for sepsis does work! Mr. Yoon's family say he is free and traveling in Africa but a staffer at the Mauritanian mission at the United Nations, handles diplomatic matters with Canada, also said he is in custody. Asked specifically if a Canadian citizen was held in Mauritania, a Foreign Affairs official in Ottawa would only say that "we are aware of a Canadian who has been detained abroad." Mr. Yoon's two dead friends, Ali Medlej and Xristos Katsiroubas, were checked by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, starting in 2007. But sources say that the RCMP joined the probe in 2010, suggesting law-enforcement authorities were increasingly concerned about their potential crimes.

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Great White North

Investigation reveals third possible Canadian terror suspect

2013-04-04

A CBC investigation has identified a third man from London, Ontario with possible links to a terrorist attack on an Algerian gas plant last January. Aaron Yoon attended London South Collegiate and was a classmate of Xristos Katsiroubas and Ali Medlej, two men identified on Monday as being among 29 Islamist terrorists extremists who stormed the plant and held hundreds of workers hostage for four days. Yoon travelled to North Africa with Katsiroubas and Medlej, but according to sources, he was arrested and detained before the attack, which was planned in Mali and launched from Libya. Yoon remains in a North African prison. Reports said that Katsiroubas and Medlej had been under surveillance since at least 2007, and that investigators had been speaking to community members in London as recently as June — just less than eight months before the attack. Both Katsiroubas and Medlej are believed to have killed themselves in the final hours of the attack, which ended after an Algerian military assault. More than three dozen oil workers were killed in the attack.

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