Almarabh Will Be Sentenced, But Not as al-Qaida Terrorist

Almarabh Will Be Sentenced, But Not as al-Qaida Terrorist

Former Toronto man who pleaded guilty to crossing border illegally will likely be deported to Syria

by Shannon Kari
Southam Newspapers
August 16, 2002

TORONTO - A former Toronto resident widely reported to be a top al-Qaida operative will be sentenced today by a U.S. federal court judge in Buffalo for a border-crossing violation.

Nabil Almarabh, 35, pleaded guilty last month in a U.S. court to one count of trying to enter the U.S. illegally. He was arrested in June 2001 when he was found hiding in the back of a truck at a border crossing near Niagara Falls. Almarabh was released two weeks later by Canadian authorities after bail was posted by his uncle, who owns a Toronto print shop. "We're not making any claims of terrorism to do with this charge," assistant U.S. attorney Marc Gromis said in an interview Thursday.

The normal sentencing range for this offence is two to eight months in jail.

Almarabh has been in custody for nearly 11 months and Gromis said prosecutors would agree with a sentence equal to the time Almarabh has now served.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has an outstanding order against Almarabh and it is likely that he will be deported to Syria.

The FBI arrested Almarabh one week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at a Chicago liquor store where he worked.

In the following weeks, he was accused of being a "close associate" of Osama bin Laden and described as part of a Canadian connection to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Almarabh was alleged to have funneled money and forged documents for the Sept. 11 hijackers.

He lived in Boston and Detroit, as well as Toronto, in the years before his arrest. His application for refugee status in Canada was denied in 1994 and Almarabh may have lived illegally in both countries.

His only previous brush with the law, however, was an assault conviction in Boston two years ago. Almarabh used a penknife to stab a roommate in the knee in a dispute over who would clean up after a pet parrot.

The only outstanding charges against Almarabh in Canada are in connection with a failure to comply with bail conditions after the June 2001 border arrest. The federal Justice Department has not filed a formal request for his extradition to face trial on those charges.

The lack of any apparent terrorist ties to Almarabh also "calls into question the whole case" against Hassan Almrei, said lawyer Barbara Jackman.

Almrei, a Syrian refugee, was arrested at his home in Mississauga last October, a few weeks after authorities raided the print shop owned by Almarabh's uncle.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) alleged that Almrei was a national security risk, in large part because he admitted to knowing Almarabh, who was described in court documents as "an individual connected to the bin Laden network."

A Federal Court of Canada judge upheld a national security certificate, which paved the way for Almrei to be deported to Syria. Almrei remains in jail in Toronto, awaiting the execution of that order.

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