The RCMP feared they didn’t have enough evidence to keep an alleged ISIS supporter in custody after his dramatic arrest in a small Quebec town near the U.S. border earlier this month, according to newly obtained court records.
And if he were released, police suspected Muhammad Shazheb Khan would still go on to carry out his alleged mass murder plot targeting Jews in New York.
The details are contained in files released to CBC News on Monday by Quebec Superior Court in Montreal. The documents shed new light on the process behind the scenes as Canadian authorities detained the 20-year-old Pakistani citizen on a U.S. terrorism charge.
“The RCMP had grounds to arrest Khan on the information provided by the U.S. but they do not have enough evidence to keep Khan in custody,” Det.-Const. Charlene Smith of the Toronto Police Fugitive Squad said in a sworn affidavit on Sept. 4, the day of Khan’s arrest in Ormstown, Que.
The affidavit …