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An RCMP officer pretended to be a book agent during a five-year undercover operation aimed at luring to Canada a Somali man suspected in the kidnapping of journalist Amanda Lindhout.

Details of that operation were confirmed for the first time Tuesday in an Ottawa courtroom, as the same investigation came under blistering attack from a defence lawyer for Ali Omar Ader, who is accusing the national police force of “a pattern of negligence.”

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The RCMP officer, who cannot be named under a court order, first made telephone contact with a man known as “Adam” in late June 2010, seven months after Lindhout and her travelling companion, Australian photographer Nigel Brennan, were released by their captors in Mogadishu.

The RCMP officer would spend years building a relationship with “Adam” during an extended series of telephone conversations in order to entice him to come to Canada as part of a book deal.