Closing arguments end, judge reserves decision in Lindhout hostage-taking trial

Ader, who speaks some English, developed a business relationship through phone calls and emails with a man who promised to help publish his book about Somalia.

They met face-to-face in 2013 on the island of Mauritius, where the business agent — actually an undercover Mountie — says Ader freely spoke of helping the hostage-takers in return for US$10,000 in ransom money.

A purported book-contract signing came two years later in Ottawa with the officer and a supposed publisher, all secretly captured on a police video. Again, Ader told the RCMP he was paid to assist the kidnappers. He was arrested the next day.

Ader, 40, pleaded not guilty to a charge of hostage-taking. He told the court, as the lone defence witness, that he, too, had been abducted by the gang and forced to be a negotiator and translator.

Ader described being held by the gunmen in an apartment for several months, as well as getting orders from the gang about what to say during calls to Lindhout’s mother, Lorinda Stewart. He told of being beaten, escaping and later surrendering when the hostage-takers made serious threats against his family.

Ader said that in Mauritius, he tried to tell the man he believed to be his business agent that he was coerced into helping the kidnappers. But the man wasn’t interested, so he told him what he wanted to hear.

In his closing submissions Thursday, prosecutor Croft Michaelson said Ader’s testimony was “riddled with inconsistencies” and should be rejected.

Ader told the true story of his role in the kidnapping in Mauritius, not in the courtroom, Michaelson said. The prosecutor suggested it simply wouldn’t make sense for Ader to confess to something he did not do.

“There was nothing to be gained by exaggerating his involvement in the hostage-taking.”

Michaelson said Ader spun a “tissue of lies” about being confined by the gang, only to escape one day when his captors were distracted. He questioned the likelihood of a sudden chance to flee, given that Ader testified he was allowed to regularly leave the apartment to have meals at restaurants

Michaelson tried to poke holes in other elements of Ader’s story. He wondered how the accused could make a 2010 call using a phone that Ader said the captors took from him months earlier. Michaelson also pointed out Ader mentioned in one recorded call that he was out of town at a time when he was said to be held captive by the group.

Trevor Brown, one of Ader’s lawyers, said in his closing submissions Wednesday it was important to remember that the Somalia of 2009 was a chaotic country with no sense of order or security, a place where those with weapons wielded power.

The gang that kidnapped Lindhout and Brennan were cruel and unpredictable people “eminently capable” of ordering Ader to help them, Brown said.

In the same vein, Brown said, once in its grip, Ader could not break away from the group without facing repercussions. “There’s no safe avenue of escape for Mr. Ader.”

— Follow @JimBronskill on Twitter

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Closing arguments end, judge reserves decision in Lindhout hostage-taking trial

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