L'histoire d'une AR-15 au Québec
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Quebec woman charged with trying to export assault rifle parts to Lebanon
National Post
MONTREAL—Police have charged a Quebec woman with attempting to export AR-15 assault rifle parts to Lebanon in contravention of a United Nations arms embargo.
Mouna Diab, 26, pleaded not guilty in a Montreal courtroom on Thursday to a single count of violating sanctions imposed on weapons shipments to Lebanon.
She was arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport on May 19 as she was attempting to fly to Lebanon, the RCMP said. Gun parts were allegedly found in her luggage.
Together with other parts she had already allegedly shipped, the components could have been assembled into working firearms, police said following the court hearing.
“If you put all the pieces together you could build or make two weapons with it,” said Cpl. Luc Thibault, a spokesman at the RCMP’s “C” Division in Montreal.
Ms. Diab was active in a Quebec youth organization that complained that Canadian Muslims were stereotyped as terrorists, and that the media portrayed Islam as a violent religion.
She was quoted in the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir in 2007 saying she understood why some Lebanese sympathized with the extremist group Hezbollah. “So you identify with Hezbollah, it’s normal,” she said.
Reached by phone, Ms. Diab referred questions to her lawyer, Richard Prihoda. He said he was waiting to see the police evidence. “She’s finding the whole ordeal very difficult,” he said.
At the bungalow where Ms. Diab lives in the suburb of Laval, friends and family members declined to talk about the case. Ms. Diab has been ordered to return to court on Nov. 10.
She is the only person charged so far in relation to the alleged scheme.
The investigation began eight months ago and is being conducted by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Montreal, a unit made up of RCMP, Quebec police and Montreal police officers.
“This investigation launched in February 2011,” Cpl. Thibault said. “It targeted a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin who exported parts of assault weapons, which they call an AR-15.”
The AR-15 is a semi-automatic assault rifle that the U.S. military calls an M16. It is a restricted firearm in Canada. Whether Ms. Diab was licensed to posses such a weapon remains unclear.
“Any criminal act that poses a potential threat to national security is dealt with very seriously by all law enforcement agencies including our national security enforcement team,” said Cpl. Thibault.
Criminal charges against alleged violators of UN sanctions are rare but not unprecedented in Canada. Last year, Mahmoud Yadegari of Toronto was sentenced to three years for attempting to ship nuclear-related items to Iran despite a UN embargo.
The Lebanon sanctions were enacted by the UN Security Council in August 2006 after the armed Islamist group Hezbollah ambushed an Israeli military patrol, triggering a month-long conflict that left hundreds dead in both countries.
The resolution calls for Hezbollah to be disarmed and disbanded, and to that end orders member nations to halt all transfers of arms, ammunition and “spare parts” to Lebanon, except with the approval of the Lebanese government. Canada adopted the sanctions in 2007.
Ms. Diab is accused of violating Section 3 of the Canadian Regulations Implementing the United Nations Resolution on Lebanon, which reads: “No person in Canada and no Canadian outside Canada shall knowingly export, sell, supply or ship, directly or indirectly, arms and related material, wherever situated, to any person in Lebanon.”
The charges against Ms. Diab do not specify the intended recipient of the gun parts, and police would not elaborate. Nor is it apparent why anyone would take such a risk, since Lebanon is already awash with weapons.
Iran and Syria have been steadily shipping arms to Hezbollah, which is openly hostile to the West. “I remain deeply concerned by the widespread proliferation of weapons in Lebanon,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the Security Council last November.
Canada calls Hezbollah “one of the most technically capable terrorist groups in the world.” Providing support to Hezbollah was outlawed by Ottawa under the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2002. Ms. Diab has not been charged with any terrorism offences.
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Ven 21 Oct 2011, 11:10 am
