In late February, 2019, Global News reported “In a newly-released decision obtained by Global News, the Parole Board said Kevin Omar Mohamed had not participated in any de-radicalization efforts and there was no evidence he was committed to changing his “extremist ideological beliefs.”

In May 2018 Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey claimed that there are approximately 60 individuals who had returned to Canada from Daesh, but described Mohammed as the only notable conviction. In July 2018, Rebecca Louis, writing in the Western Journal of Legal Studies, recognized another notable convictions of individuals returning from Daesh.

Mohammed was initially faced a weapons charge, when a search of his home found a large knife. But that charge was dropped, and he was tried for “participating in or contributing to, directly or indirectly, any activity of a terrorist group for the purpose of enhancing the ability of any terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity.” He pled guilty in June 2017, and was convicted on October 31, 2017. The maximum sentence he could have received was ten years, but Mohammed received a sentence of four and half years, after agreeing to plead guilty. Taking into account the time he was in custody, prior to his conviction, he will serve just two years. His sentence includes a requirement that he participate in a de-radicalization program, while in custody, and that he would be monitored for a further three years, after his release, and not access the internet, for three years. However, when the parole board considered his case, in February 2019, it noted he had not participated in a de-radicalization program.

Details of Mohammed’s activities, and of security officials investigation into him, weren’t made public until he was sentenced on October 31, 2017.

The CBC reports analysts noticed that, in 2015, he stopped making tweets that supported the activities of ISIS, in favour of the less radical al Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra. However an online request he made two days after radical jihadists attacked an airport in Brussels, triggered his arrest. The video game Call of Duty allows gamers to load customized scenarios, and he requested a copy of a customized scenario set in the Brussels airport that had just been attacked, that would allow him to play the role of one of the attackers. Attached to the tweet in which he made this request Mohammed placed an image, from the perspective of a shooter, of unarmed civilian airport patrons being slaughtered. Commenting on the image attached to that tweet counter-terrorism expert Mubin Sheikh told the CBC:

Counter-terrorism expert Mubin Sheikh told radio commentator Charles Adler that he had been in touch with Mohammed, on social media, dating back to 2014. Sheikh told Adler that Mohammed’s background was West Indian-Canadian, not South Asian-Canadian. Sheikh told Adler that Mohammed considered joining both an al Qaeda affiliated group and the more radical ISIS.

Mohammed traveled to Turkey, in 2014, and was smuggled across the border into Syria by members of Jabhat al-Nusra. There is no evidence that Mohammed committed any offenses for which he could face charges, when he was in Syria, because family members who were concerned for his welfare followed him, and convinced him to return to Canada.