OTTAWA, Canada
Canada is aware of reports suggesting that a man is in Turkish custody on charges of spying for the Canadian intelligence agency, but it cannot comment on matters of national security, a senior Canadian official said Thursday.
Canada's Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney made the remarks after reports emerged in media outlets that suggested that a suspect detained in Turkey on charges of helping three British school girls cross into Syria to join Daesh worked for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
According to Reuters, which quoted an unnamed European security source, the suspect under Turkish custody had connections with the Canadian spy agency.
The Anadolu Agency approached Canada's Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Johanna Quinney for comment, who said that the question came under the domain of the Public Safety Ministry, which in turn reiterated the remarks of Blaney.
Turkey takes custody of suspect in teenage girls
The man who helped the British school girls cross into Syria is under custody of Turkish authorities, a Turkish official who did not want to be named said Thursday.
According to the official, the man detained was not Turkish. Also, he was not a citizen of the country for whose spy agency he allegedly worked for.
The remarks of the Turkish official came after the country's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish police detained a suspect on the payroll of a foreign spy agency who allegedly helped three teenaged British schoolgirls cross into Syria to join Daesh.
"Do you know who appeared to be the person that helped these girls? He has been detained," Cavusoglu said earlier in a live interview with the private A Haber TV channel.
Cavusoglu said that the man in custody worked for the intelligence agency of a country involved in the U.S.-led coalition against Daesh. However, he chose not to disclose the exact country involved and only elaborated to say that the country involved was neither the U.S. nor any member of the EU bloc.
British girls Shamima Begum, 15, Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, went missing from East London in early February and reportedly arrived in Turkey to cross into Syria.
Turkey is often accused of not being able to control its borders with Syria. But Cavusoglu denied the allegations saying, "Turkey is doing its part."
The Turkish foreign minister recently also said that, since January Ankara had deported 1,154 foreign fighters who were allegedly trying to join Daesh.
