A Toronto-area man arrested at Pearson International Airport faces charges for terrorism related offences, RCMP said Wednesday.
Mohamed Hersi, 25, was arrested Tuesday after a joint investigation between the RCMP and Toronto police that began last October.
Police allege Hersi was planning to travel to Somalia via London and Cairo to join Al-Shabaab and participate in their terrorist activities. He was charged with attempting to participate in terrorist activity and providing counsel to a person to participate in terrorist activity.
Al-Shabaab is an al-Qaida-linked militia trying to overthrow Somalia's transitional government.
Several young men in Canada are feared to have travelled to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab in recent years, RCMP spokesman Sgt. Marc LaPorte said Wednesday. This is the first arrest in Canada.
Hersi appeared in court Wednesday in Brampton, Ont., and police plan to hold a news conference at 1 p.m. to release more information.
Ottawa labelled Al-Shabaab a terrorist organization in March 2010, citing the issue of youth recruitment as one reason. That same month, news broke that Mohammed Elmi Ibrahim, a former University of Toronto student who went missing in 2008, had been killed in Somalia after joining the group.
Al-Shabaab -- which means "the youth" in Arabic -- embraces a radical form of Islam similar to the harsh, conservative brand practised by Afghanistan's Taliban. Its fighters number several thousand.
The U.S. government charged 14 people last year for being participants in "a deadly pipeline" to route money and fighters from the U.S. to the group in Somalia.
Officials have said about 20 men, most of them from Somali descent, left Minnesota to join Al-Shabaab between December 2007 and October 2009.
