An Islamic State financier from Toronto has admitted he used online fundraising platforms to collect tens of thousands of dollars for the terrorist group’s fighters overseas.
At the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Monday, Khalilullah Yousuf pleaded guilty to terrorist financing and participating in terrorist group activity.
Claiming he was fundraising for Palestinians in Gaza and Muslim religious events, Yousuf solicited donations on crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe.
But Yousuf instead sent the money to an ISIS facilitator, who provided photos of weapons, ammunition and an ISIS flag to show how it was being used.
Yousuf also acknowledged he had produced ISIS propaganda, as well as manuals on how to carry out attacks and instructions on how to join the terror group.
Prosecutors are seeking a 12-year sentence.
Although a wide array of terrorist groups, ranging from Hamas to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers, have been accused of raising money in Canada, prosecutions are rare.
The case follows a series of ISIS-related arrests across the country that have raised questions about youth radicalization and immigration security screening.
A Canadian citizen, Yousuf was allegedly part of an international ISIS network that used online and encrypted messaging platforms to finance and recruit for ISIS.
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After pledging allegiance to the ISIS leader, he raised more than $35,000 through unemployment insurance and COVID-19 benefits but most of the cash came through GoFundMe.
He initially used cash transfer companies to ship the money to ISIS but later switched to bitcoin, telling an undercover officer it was better because it did not leave a trail.
He also told the undercover officer he knew the money was going to ISIS, according to an agreed statement of facts read into the court record.
Yousuf was arrested in July 2023, following a two-year investigation by the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, the FBI and Spain’s Guardia Civil.
He was also indicted on terrorism financing charges in the U.S.
According to U.S. court documents, he was a member of an encrypted ISIS chat group under the name Khorasan E. (Khorasan is the ISIS branch in South Asia, also known as ISIS-K.)
Yousuf set up online fundraising drives “for the good people in the Gaza Strip” and for Ramadan in Gaza, as well as for the Muslim holiday Eid, the U.S. alleged.
But he instead sent the money to an ISIS facilitator “for jihad” and “for fighters fighting on behalf of ISIS,” according to the U.S. charges.
To verify the money was being directed to ISIS violence, the facilitator sent photos of an ISIS flag with bullets and grenades on top, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged.
According to his U.S. charges, he sent more than US$20,000 in bitcoin to ISIS, produced ISIS propaganda and conspired with an overseas ISIS member to carry out terrorist attacks on foreign embassies in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Yousuf’s case is the latest ISIS-related matter to come before Canada’s courts.
Last Oct. 3, three ISIS supporters were sentenced to life for shooting a family in Mississauga, Ont., to prevent one of the victims from reporting their terror financing operation to police.
A month earlier, the RCMP arrested Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani citizen who came to Canada on a student visa, as he was allegedly on his way to New York to conduct a mass shooting at a Brooklyn Jewish centre on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
In July 2024, the RCMP arrested a father and son originally from Egypt, Ahmed and Mostafa Eldidi, who were allegedly about to carry out an attack for ISIS in Toronto.
That same month, Kimberly Polman, a B.C. woman who was alleged trained by ISIS in Syria, was charged with two terrorism offences.
In a report released on Monday, the Organization for the Prevention of Violence said religiously motivated violent extremism (RMVE) linked to ISIS had “re-emerged in Canada after a lull following the fall of the caliphate in Syria and Iraq.”
“Recent arrests suggest a growing interest in carrying out attacks within Canada, with an increasing number of young people involved,” the Edmonton-based group wrote in its latest survey of extremism.
“Some of these RMVE actors in Alberta appear to be inspired by geopolitical events, particularly the Israel-Hamas war, or other grievances, such as anti-2SLGBTQI+ sentiments.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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