{"id":44800,"date":"2015-03-13T21:20:14","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T13:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=44800"},"modified":"2015-03-13T21:20:14","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T13:20:14","slug":"terror-suspect-told-police-he-was-trying-to-de-radicalize-co-accused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/03\/13\/terror-suspect-told-police-he-was-trying-to-de-radicalize-co-accused\/","title":{"rendered":"Terror suspect told police he was trying to ‘de-radicalize’ co accused"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TORONTO — One of two men on trial for allegedly plotting to kill scores of people by derailing a passenger train told an investigator he only pretended to go along with the idea in an attempt to deradicalize his co-accused.<\/p>\n

A transcript of a four and a half hour interview with an RCMP officer on the day he was arrested shows Raed Jaser repeatedly tried to cast his co-accused, Chiheb Esseghaier, as an extremist with a “disturbed” mind.<\/p>\n

“I thought I could help him,” Jaser said when asked why he let Esseghaier into his life. “He’s sick. He needs help.”<\/p>\n

A jury is currently deliberating the fate of Jaser and Esseghaier, who face multiple terrorism-related charges.<\/p>\n

Jaser pleaded not guilty and his lawyer argued he was only feigning interest in alleged terror plots as part of an elaborate con to extract money from his co-accused and an undercover FBI agent who befriended them.<\/p>\n

Esseghaier chose not to participate in his trial because he wanted to be judged by the rules of the Qur’an. A not guilty plea was entered for him by the judge presiding over the case.<\/p>\n

On the day of his April 2013 arrest, Jaser told the RCMP officer interrogating him that he had been trying to persuade Esseghaier to “change his mindset.”<\/p>\n

As the officer revealed he knew Jaser and Esseghaier scouted a railway bridge as a potential target for their alleged attack, Jaser claimed he hadn’t been encouraging Esseghaier.<\/p>\n

“I don’t wanna do nothing of what this is,” he said. “It’s like deradicalizing somebody. It takes a long time, it’s a process. Okay. It’s not that simple right …you have to walk with them.”<\/p>\n

Jaser added that he tried to “get into” Esseghaier’s head but his efforts didn’t work.<\/p>\n

But what good could come from scouting a railway bridge as a potential target for an attack, the officer asked.<\/p>\n

“One on one talk. I don’t know. Maybe heart to heart,” Jaser offered as an explanation. “I don’t know what exactly was going through my head.”<\/p>\n

At one point, the RCMP officer played an excerpt from a secretly recorded conversation the men had on the railway bridge during which Jaser is heard saying “that’s the target” while a Via Rail train goes by.<\/p>\n

“I’m just trying to get into your mind as to why you would say that’s the target,” the officer asked.<\/p>\n

“It’s just … uh … it’s role play man,” Jaser said.<\/p>\n

Jaser also repeatedly told the officer that he was the “wrong person” to arrest and that police needed to look at the “bigger picture.”<\/p>\n

“Who in their right mind would do something like this,” he said of the alleged plot.<\/p>\n

“Well you guys were planning it,” the officer replied.<\/p>\n

“Not planning, no,” Jaser said.<\/p>\n

When asked why he didn’t call police if he suspected a terrorist plot in the making, Jaser said he had tried to find a solution himself.<\/p>\n

“If you see someone doing something wrong … you wanna try to reach out to him. You don’t wanna come out and shove it in their face,” he said.<\/p>\n

Jaser also told the investigator he had tried to deradicalize another man in the past, although he couldn’t remember that individual’s name.<\/p>\n

The court released the transcript on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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