Local IS supporter rearrested

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/06/2015 (3921 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who admits he supports the Islamic State was rearrested Friday afternoon.

Aaron Driver was taken into custody by police at his Charleswood home because of a complication with a surety that was a condition of his bail, his lawyer, Leonard Tailleur, told the Free Press.

When reached Friday night, Tailleur said Driver was in police custody “or will be shortly. (Driver) will be appearing in court Monday morning in custody. I’ll be meeting with the federal Department of Justice Monday morning to deal with it.”

Tailleur said it was a surety issue with Driver’s bail bond and “nothing more.” The defence lawyer characterized the situation as “not serious” and “likely will be resolved with an actual peace bond rather than further bail issue. But we’ll see.”

A spokesperson for the Crown could not be reached for comment Friday night.

The arrests ends 14 days of freedom for Driver, who was released on bail June 12 after being detained June 4 because of his public support for the Islamic State. He has been on a CSIS watch list for months because of his social media activity and has had several Twitter accounts suspended.

He wasn’t charged with any crime and was initially released when he agreed to abide by 25 conditions, including wearing electronic ankle monitoring, abiding by a curfew, not having any weapons or passports, and not having any computers or tablets. To secure his release from jail, he had to agree to several conditions — including religious counselling and wearing a GPS tracker.

Driver, who uses the alias Harun Abdurahman, is banned from owning any object with a logo or symbol of IS or al-Qaida. He is also restricted from having contact with people from those terrorist groups.

Driver is also restricted from using any social-media sites. He has returned to his home but must also abide by a daily curfew of 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Driver previously made headlines when he shared his radical support for IS in a February 2015 interview with the Toronto Star. He has had at least six Twitter accounts suspended and was allegedly plugged in to a pro-Islamic State network and in touch with other IS supporters around the world, some of whom have been arrested.

Peace bonds are more commonly used against high-risk sex offenders who have served all of their sentence and are set to be released from prison despite concerns they may reoffend. They are seen as a “last resort” for individuals police fear are likely to commit a crime.

At the time of Driver’s arrest, police were seeking a one-year peace bond, with the only condition being Driver “keep the peace and be of general behaviour.” This type of generic wording would give police the power to arrest him for any type of wrongdoing, minor or major.