Othman Ayed Hamdan, arrested on terror charges, makes first court appearance

A resident of Fort St. John, B.C. who was arrested for six terrorism-related charges on Friday, made his first court appearance on Monday.

Othman Ayed Hamdan remains in an RCMP jail cell and made a brief appearance by video at the Fort St. John Provincial courthouse. He appears to be a short, round-faced man with neatly-trimmed hair and a beard.

An RCMP news release says the 33-year-old northern B.C. man was involved in distributing propaganda connected with the group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS.

The RCMP allege the propaganda posted online included inducement and instructions to commit murder in the name of Jihad.

Not much known about Hamdan

Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman says she hasn't spoken with anyone who knows Othman Ayed Hamdan, a local resident, and she's unsure why he picked Fort St. John. 

"His activities were on the world wide web. He just happened to be in the City of Fort St. John."

Documents obtained by CBC show a 33-year-old man with the same name in Fort St. John owns a residential building contracting company called Noex Contracting. Hamdan was reportedly a Jordanian national who came to Canada as a refugee 13 years ago.  

 Ben Stepski, says he never suspected that his neighbour would be the target of a massive police raid.

"I noticed there were three or four cops standing out here, they were talking about what to take in next, what to take out," he said. "They had their cones out so they could mark evidence and stuff like that, and they were bringing out packages with Ziploc bags of items ... I assume evidence."

Concerned community

Fort St. John's small Muslim community is stunned by the allegations and says Hamdan was never part of their mosque. 

A spokesman for the Peace River Muslim Association, Azhar Phoolwala, says his community had never met or even heard of Hamdan before police announced the charges.

"We all condemn his actions," he says. "It's a shock to us like anybody else."

Phoolwala says Hamdan had not been to the local mosque or to any prayer meetings or events held by the religious group.

The Peace River Muslim Association says it will be meeting with the RCMP and mayor to discuss this type of extremism.

Michael Zekulin, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, says terrorism is not usually isolated to one individual in a community.

"The larger the city, the chances that you're going to come across somebody who's curious in that same part of the country or in that city, increases." 

One concerned Fort St. John resident, Bev Nicholson, says she's worried the city may already have a bigger problem.  

"So who else was this guy talking to? He's the only one that's been arrested at this point," she says.