The Crown has withdrawn a corruption-related criminal charge against an Ottawa police officer.
Const. Mohamed Mohamed was charged with obstructing justice in June after an RCMP anti-corruption probe, when the RCMP alleged he shared evidence with a witness in a criminal investigation. That investigation resulted in what Ottawa police describe as one of its largest single-seizures of fentanyl in the force’s history.
A prosecutor cited the charge having “no reasonable prospect of conviction” when it was withdrawn on Wednesday morning.
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Mohamed declined to comment on the abandoned charge. His lawyer Michael Spratt told CBC News the officer was arrested by the RCMP “in front of his family, in plain sight of his community.” He was taken to the police station where Mohamed gave a full and frank statement to the police.
According to Spratt, Const. El-Badry contacted Mohamed and asked if Mohamed could take his brother back to his Holmwood apartment in April, which had appeared to be broken into. Mohamed did so and identified himself as an off-duty police officer to the superintendent of the building.
The superintendent declined to show Mohamed any security video of the alleged break and enter. Mohamed told him, Spratt said, to forward everything he has to the Ottawa police robbery unit. It was for that communication that he was ultimately charged.
At no point, according to his lawyer, did Mohamed have any idea that either of the brothers were under any investigation.
“The Crown did the right thing withdrawing the charge because there is no reasonable prospect of conviction because absolutely no offence took place,” Spratt said.
Spratt remains confused about why his client was charged in the first place and why Ottawa police Chief Peter Sloly linked Mohamed’s actions to corruption or bad practices.
“It’s unconscionable that the police would charge someone with no evidence of any wrongdoing and would publicize that and hold that individual up as an example of one of the bad apples when the evidence is non-existent.”
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Read Shaamini Yogaretnam’s full article: CBC
