Prosecution seeks life sentence on terrorism grounds for alleged mass killing threat in Montreal

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame's booking photo taken by U.S. Marshals in 2003. (Source: Former FBI Special Agent Harry Samit/LinkedIn)

A Crown prosecutor is now treating a man’s alleged threat of a mass killing in Montreal in May as a terrorist act and wants to secure a life sentence for the accused.

Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, 51, was arrested by the RCMP last month and charged with one count of uttering threats. According to the Mounties, he allegedly told an employee at a local homeless shelter in late May that he wanted to “commit an attack with the goal of killing a large number of people.”

Uttering threats carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, however, the prosecutor told the court Monday that the Attorney General believes the threat Warsame allegedly made constituted terrorist activity and filed notice to upgrade the punishment to a life sentence, if he’s found guilty.

Federal Crown prosecutor Samuel Monfette-Tessier told CTV News that he believes this is the first time this notice, under section 83.27 of Criminal Code, has been filed in Quebec. He said it was filed following “further assessment of the evidence by the RCMP” in the case.

Warsame, who is homeless, is not facing any new charges since his arrest on June 4.

The accused was assessed at Philippe-Pinel psychiatric hospital in Montreal to determine his criminal responsibility for the offence he is accused of. The results of the assessment are kept under seal and not yet public at the request of the defence.

Warsame remains in custody and is scheduled to return to court next week.

Warsame was a former associate of Osama bin Laden after meeting him when he received training at the al Faruq training camp in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. officials said Warsame described bin Laden as “very inspirational” and was trained to use weapons, such as AK-47 rifles. According to an affidavit sworn by an FBI special agent in 2004, the accused said he saw bin Laden on several occasions, attended his lectures, and sat next to him at a meal.

He pleaded guilty in federal court in Minneapolis on May 20, 2009, to one count of conspiring to provide material support and resources to the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

After serving his sentence in prison in the U.S., Warsame, a Canadian citizen of Somali descent, was deported back to Canada in 2010.