Hiva Alizadeh
Hiva Alizadeh is a Canadian who was convicted of terrorism related offenses in 2014.[1] Stewart Bell, reporting for Global News wrote that Alizadeh was convicted of recruiting for al Qaeda.
Alizadeh's ethnic background is Kurdish, and he became a Canadian citizen in 2007.[2]
Alizadeh was first arrested, in Ottawa, in 2010, at the same time as two other men.[3] He was sentenced to serve 24 years, and a parole board authorized his release in 2023.[1]
In 2014 CBC News reported that Alizaeh's conviction followed a plea agreement under which he pled guilty to possessing explosives to be used in a bombing.[3] The CBC described him as a "ringleader".
According to the statement Alizadeh agreed to he travelled to a radical training camp in Pakistan in 2009, where he learned how to make bombs.[3] He returned to Canada with violent videos and other material intended to radicalize recruits.
Alizadeh was arrested with a partially completed circuit board for an improvised explosive.[3] Although he had not acquired any actual explosives, the circuit board was classified as an explosive device.
At the time of his arrest his wife had accepted a teaching position in Saudi Arabia and the couple were planning to move there with their three children.[3]
In 2015 the Stephen Harper government began measures to strip Alizadeh of his Canadian citizenship.[4] Alizadeh, like other convicted terrorists before him, argued that stripping him of citizenship violated his rights under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.[5]
Misbahuddin Ahmed, one of the other two men arrested at the same time as Alizadeh was convicted, earlier in 2014, of "conspiring to facilitate a terrorist activity and of participating in the activities of a terrorist group."[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stewart Bell (2023-05-17). "A Canadian Al Qaeda bomb-maker is coming out of prison. When are terrorists ready for release?". Global News. Archived from the original on 2023-05-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20230518102558/https://globalnews.ca/news/9684574/al-qaeda-hiva-alizadeh-terrorism-offenders-parole/. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Robert Bostelaar (2014-09-18). "Hiva Alizadeh pleads guilty to terror plot". Ottawa Citizen. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/hiva-alizadeh-pleads-guilty-to-terror-plot. Retrieved 2023-05-18. "But Alizadeh, now 34, did bring the threat of terror to Canada. He carried it in the 56 circuit boards — meant to trigger remote bombs — that he smuggled back from a training camp in Afghanistan in 2009, just two years after the Kurdish refugee had secured Canadian citizenship."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Hiva Alizadeh pleads guilty in Ottawa terrorism trial". CBC News (Ottawa). 2014-09-14. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hiva-alizadeh-pleads-guilty-in-ottawa-terrorism-trial-1.2768944. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
- ↑ "Hiva Alizadeh, convicted in terror conspiracy, challenges provisions to revoke citizenship". CBC News. 2015-10-15. Archived from the original on 2022-08-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20220816224102/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hiva-alizadeh-convicted-in-terror-conspiracy-challenges-provisions-to-revoke-citizenship-1.3273003. Retrieved 2023-05-18. "The federal Conservatives argue terrorism is a crime so grave that perpetrators are unworthy of holding citizenship. Critics say stripping someone's right to be a citizen is akin to the medieval practice of banishment."
- ↑ "Terrorist says stripping citizenship violates his right to vote". Maclean's magazine (Ottawa). 2015-10-15. Archived from the original on 2018-11-30. https://web.archive.org/web/20181130045710/https://macleans.ca/news/canada/terrorist-says-stripping-citizenship-violates-his-right-to-vote/. Retrieved 2023-05-18. "Hiva Alizadeh is the latest to challenge new provisions that allow the government to revoke citizenship from someone convicted of terrorism, treason or espionage — as long as they hold nationality in another country."
