MONTREAL—A young Montreal couple recently acquitted of terrorism charges is being paid by a publicly funded de-radicalization agency to share their experience on radicalization in the prison system.

Sabrine Djermane and El Mahdi Jamali, both 21, will spend the next three months at Montreal’s Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence working on a guide to help corrections officers and other workers to spot the warning signs of extremism in custody, said Herman Deparice-Okomba, head of the centre.

“We need their expertise as people who have gone through the system,” he said in an interview. He added that the guide would include how to handle and work with prisoners awaiting trial or convicted for terrorism offences.

“The second element is to have them help us document the process of indoctrination and radicalization in Quebec . . . .

“The idea is for us to develop prevention strategies.”

For this, they will receive a financial stipend of $294 a week, according to Montreal’s La Presse.

The money is intended to cover the costs of travelling to and from the centre and offsetting the wages from other job offers the couple turned down to work with the radicalization program.

“They didn’t ask for anything,” Deparice-Okomba said. “Morally, we are uncomfortable and we wanted to reimburse them.”

The Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization was created in March 2015 with initial funding of $1 million each over two years from the City of Montreal and the Quebec government.

The next month, in April 2015, the Montreal couple were arrested and accused of trying to leave Canada to join a terrorist group and for possession of an explosive substance.

They were reported to police by concerned members of Djermane’s family.

A search of the Montreal apartment the couple shared revealed a handwritten recipe for a homemade bomb that Jamali had copied from the online al-Qaeda propaganda magazine, Inspire.

The verdict in the case was reached on Dec. 19, 2017. The Crown is appealing Djermane’s acquittal on all charges. Jamali was convicted of a lesser charge of possessing explosive substances, for which he was sentenced to time served in pre-trial custody.

Tiago Murias, Jamali’s lawyer said his client and Djermane are also receiving counseling from the centre intended to help them transition back into society.

“They’ve still spent two-and-a-half years in detention before they were acquitted. That leaves a mark.”

There are psychological marks and marks on the couple’s reputation.

“When it comes to job offers, it’s not a great thing when you type in someone’s name and this (terrorism) comes up. It’s not great even if you’re acquitted, because, what people remember are the charges, not the acquittal,” Murias said.

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Both Djermane and Jamali are subject to a peace bond that prevents them from communicating with anyone in Syria, consulting terrorist propaganda, using social media, obtaining passports or attending a Montreal mosque run by Adil Charkaoui, a man the federal government once suspected of being an Al Qaeda sleeper agent.

The terms of that recognizance order will be reviewed by a judge when the couple returns to court in March.

The working arrangement between the Montreal radicalization program and the young couple sparked lively reactions online when it was first reported Wednesday.

Phil Gurski, a former agent with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said in an interview that bringing the couple on as consultants could be an effective way of reaching other young people at risk of radicalization and of keeping Jamali and Djermane involved in a positive and constructive activity.

The cautionary tales of young Muslims have more credibility than white, middle aged spies, police officers or psychologists will ever be able to muster, he said.

But Gurski said there is always a risk.

“This couple, regardless of what you think of the state of the court case, are in a state of disengagement, meaning they’re not actively seeking to join the Islamic State, or plan a terrorist attack or whatever,” he said. “Disengagement is not de-radicalization. The fact that you’re not doing something about it doesn’t mean you’re not still thinking about it.”

Deparice-Okomba countered that his staff have been working with Jamali and Djermane and their families since the beginning of their legal ordeal, first behind bars, now to return to school and find a job.

The goal, he said, is “to restart life like it was before without forgetting what they’ve gone through.”

“I’m going to give the centre credit that they’ve done their homework and they’ve vetted these people properly,” said Gurski.

“The problem is that all it takes is one high-profile failure. If you go with somebody and six months from now they blow something up or something happens and it turns out that they were part of the centre . . . and it goes south, then all the good they’ve done goes out the window.”