UPDATE 1-Two arrested, one charged in Canada in national security raids

UPDATE 1-Two arrested, one charged in Canada in national security raids

The Canadian police said on Friday they had charged a minor with terror-related offences in connection with a pair of national security raids in Kingston, Ontario Thursday night. Two people were arrested late Thursday after the raids. One, a minor, has been charged with knowingly facilitating terrorism and counseling a person to place a bomb "or other lethal device" in public, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement.

A bomb was never placed, police said. As a minor, the person cannot be named under Canadian law. The second person was identified by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp as 20-year-old Hussam Eddin Alzahabi. The RCMP said in its Friday morning statement the second suspect had not been charged.

In an interview with CBC following the arrests, Alzahabi's father Amin Alzahabi protested his son's innocence. The family, originally from Syria, came to Canada as privately sponsored refugees, according to a pastor at one of the churches who sponsored them. Goodale said the country's official threat level would remain unchanged at "medium," where it has been since 2014.

Kingston is a small city east of Toronto, home to a major university and several prisons. (Reporting by Allison Martell, Tyler Choi and Anna Mehler Paperny Editing by Bill Rigby and James Dalgleish)

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