A Calgary man has pleaded guilty to terrorist offenses by confessing to abduction during a year-long battle as a trained sniper with ISIS in Syria.
Hussein Sobhe Borhot, 36, pleaded guilty to participating in terrorist activities outside Canada and committing a crime led by a terrorist organization.
Borhot spent from May 2013 to June 2014 in Syria after sneaking across the border from Turkey with the help of a Turkish military officer who was paid to allow ISIS fighters to cross.
The RCMP has worked with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Defense throughout the seven-year investigation.
‘I didn’t know better’
When he returned to Calgary, Borhot was the subject of two undercover operations, telling an officer he was inspired by the video game first-person shooter Call of Duty.
Defense attorney Rame Qatrib, along with prosecutors Kent Brown and Domenico Puglia, agreed to plead to two of the four charges Borchot faced.
On Thursday, Queen’s Judge David Labrenz accepted the plea and adjourned the case until next month for a hearing. Borhot will remain on bail, under strict conditions pending sentencing.
When Labrenz asked Borhot if he admitted the facts of the case, the offender said he did, but added: “I didn’t know better.”
The maximum sentence for the second crime is life imprisonment, although lawyers have not said what they will seek.
Details of Borchot’s crimes come from a coherent statement of facts read aloud by Puglia.
The original plan: suicide bomber
The agreed statement of facts does not describe in detail how he was recruited to fight for ISIS, but begins with Borhot, who boarded a plane in Calgary on May 9, 2013, bound for Turkey.
According to the document, Borhot did not tell his wife or father about his plans to travel to Syria. He uses a $ 3,500 prepaid credit card to book his flights.
From Turkey, Borhot moved to Syria, where he “did a lot of training” and received weapons, including grenades and an AK-47.
Borhot initially told the undercover officer that he wanted to be a suicide bomber, but changed his mind and became a fighter instead.
During his military training, Borhot impressed his leader with his sniper skills, ranking second among the trainees.
The kidnappings
At one point, while the undercover officer was having dinner, Borhot told him about a moment when he was traveling to a village with his ISIS group and kidnapping opposition fighters he thought were from the Free Syrian Army.
But the next day, back in his camp, Borhot said his leader had told him to return one of the victims, who was considered “innocent.”
While on this mission, Borhot himself was abducted.
ISIS then exchanged prisoners and Borhot was returned to his group.
During the two undercover operations between 2016 and 2020, Borhot told police he would not kill anyone who did not try to kill him, but also said he “loves shooting and jihad.”
“Many died”
In the first operation – which lasted more than two years, taking place between October 2016 and December 2018 – an RCMP employee befriended Borhot in a mosque.
The two discussed “innocent topics” such as work, politics and religion, according to a coherent statement of facts.
They exchanged phone numbers and talked on text messages, on the phone and in person.
The officer told Borhot that he supported religious fundamentalists in his home country.
Three months after that relationship, Borhot began talking about his role as an ISIS fighter.
Borhot revealed that “many died” during his stay in Syria and was excited to describe the fighting, according to the officer.
Borhot said he would return
Borhot said that if he had the opportunity to return, he would say, “for religion, everything.”
The suspected terrorist also confirmed a news report that introduced him and described his ISIS admission form, which was received by CBC News.
On March 11, 2016, Adrien Arseno of the CBC announced that ISIS documents revealed six Canadian names.
Following this report, the RCMP found that one of the ISIS documents, a form for accepting the terrorist organization, described Borhot.
It included his name, nickname, mother’s name, date of birth, point of entry, previous occupation (pipe fitting) and telephone numbers in Calgary.
Call of Duty
The form also showed that between a fighter, a suicide bomber or an inghimasi (teams of trained guerrilla fighters waiting to be killed), Borhot’s choice of military designation was “fighter.”
Four years later, the FBI gave RCMP Borhot an ISIS exit form. This shows that he left the terrorist group on May 30, 2014, after his last assignment as a fighter in Homs province.
The first undercover operation ended with the officer telling Borhot that he had to return to his country due to increased control by the RCMP.
This officer reappeared in 2020, and the relationship was revived when Borhot helped the officer set up Call of Duty on his Playstation.
He called the video game a “good workout” and said the parts were like a real fight.
By July 2020, investigators had what they needed and filed terrorism charges against Borhot.
Two months later, Borhot’s cousin Jamal Borhot was also charged with related crimes. He has not yet set a trial date and will be in court again on May 13.
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