Jury hears 2021 Chicken Land shooting was by three men linked to ISIS

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BRAMPTON — Turns out the terrifyingly wild shooting that killed a man and injured his family and staff at a popular Mississauga restaurant was also allegedly connected to Islamic terror.

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The jury in the shooting murder of a 25-year-old Mississauga man and attempted murder of his whole family and a family friend inside their famous Chicken Land BBQ restaurant was told the motive of this heinous crime was to prevent the victim from telling authorities about the men charged before the court of their alleged connection to ISIS.

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The crown attorney said they will argue that money from a business the suspects were involved in was funnelled abroad to help fund the Islamic terror network and the execution of a family was done by a group connected to ISIS who were allegedly trying to protect that information from being told to police.

The blockbuster claims were made in Crown Attorney David D’Iorio’s opening address to the jury Tuesday before Justice David Harris at the Davis courthouse.

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Accused gunman Anand Nath, 24, accused getaway driver Suliman Raza, 28, and alleged leader Naqash Abassi, 34, are charged with one count of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder.

This shocking shooting ambush, which saw seven shots hit five people in just 18 seconds, occurred at 7:17 p.m. from a handgun carried by a “thin” hooded man, May 29, 2021, in the Esso gas station plaza at the corner of Glen Erin Dr. and The College Way.

In that disturbing incident Naim Akl was struck by gunfire and killed. His father, Jihad, mother, Rania, 56, brother, Daniel, 22 and family friend Rohullah Rawi, who was helping out at the eatery, were all struck with 9 mm shells while sister Sandra, 13, was shot at but the bullet missed.

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Akl was shot in the neck and died at the scene. The others were all taken to hospital and survived.

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“You will hear evidence that Naim Akl had become aware” that “the group had pledged allegiance to ISIS” and “was planning to go to the authorities and betray the others,” D’Iorio told the jury. “So it’s our position that the others came up with a plan to prevent that from happening: a plan to kill Naim Akl and his family.”

It was a stunning assertion that has not been proven in court. The three men have pleaded not guilty, and the trial that just wrapped up its first week is expected to last into late June.

Evidence presented by the crown Wednesday and Thursday was of a forensic nature including a run through of security video evidence with Peel Regional Police Homicide Det. Ninad Besai on the stand explaining what he located in the investigation as the coordinator of video collection.

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The three accused watched from the prisoner’s box during the laborious evidence entry to show a car allegedly involved, a man getting into the car and later a gathering at an apartment complex.

But the focus as the week wound down was on the crown’s position.

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“They weren’t just buying and selling products,” said D’Lorio. “They had pledged allegiance to ISIS, the Islamic State, and money was being used to finance that organization … Money, quote unquote, was being sent back home to further that cause.”

Soon after the shooting the Toronto Sun attended a business called TryALinc imports in a warehouse at an industrial area on Kimbel St. in Mississauga near Pearson International Airport where fellow employees called the allegations against their friends Islamophobic.

“Innocent until proven guilty,” Nofal Abbasi, who said he was a cousin to the Abbasi accused, said in 2021. “We know these guys and know for a fact they didn’t do anything.” He also said it’s “all lies and accusations … this happens all the time — something happens with Muslims and right away they say the same thing.”

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The trial is where they will have a fair opportunity to offer a defence. The accused are to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

But the Crown told the jury that it will present a conspiracy that saw the accused gunman go to the much-loved barbecue chicken establishment that has been around for three decades on a Saturday night, fire numerous gunshots and then escape by getting into the trunk of a getaway car that was parked nearby.

The Crown also told the jury murder victim Akl, who had worked at TryALinc, was also a convert to Islam by one of the accused but had not told his parents who are of the Druze faith. When I interviewed the friends, one of them said he just converted to Islam just moments before we arrived. But they insisted this warehouse was not a mosque, as some believed because they saw people praying, but a place of business.

The Crown has introduced to the jury its intention to show links between people in this business and ISIS.

The crown’s case resumes Monday.

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