The RCMP detained two Canadians on Tuesday night after their flight landed in Montreal. They had been seized in Syria while fighting the so-called Islamic State.
The women are the first detainees from northeast Syria’s jail facilities for foreign ISIS militants and their families that the Canadian government has returned home.
Oumaimi Chouay, 27, was charged with four terrorism offences, including leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group.
She is the first Canadian that the US has detained.
-supported Kurdish fighters will be prosecuted in Canada. She was expected to appear in court in Montreal on Wednesday.
Kimberly Polman, a second Canadian, was also detained but was not charged. Instead, RCMP are looking to file a peace bond against her for terrorism.
According to her attorney Lawrence Greenspon, Polman is anticipated to be freed after executing a recognisance, following which she will return to Abbotsford, British Columbia.
Tuesday, before the two women were given to the rebels in northeast Syria, a delegation from the Canadian government met with local authorities there. The two kids of Chouay were also returned to Canada.
The Canadian government has reversed course after initially declining to assist in the removal of any of its people from the detention facilities, claiming that it was not required to do so by law and that doing so would be risky.
Under a policy adopted by Global Affairs Canada in January 2021, Canadians detained at ISIS camps in Syria can only receive “extraordinary assistance” under limited circumstances, such as if they have medical issues that cannot be treated on site.
Polman was qualified since she had a number of major health issues.
According to a representative for Global Affairs Canada, “Canada executed the operation on that basis and secured the health and well-being of the 4 Canadians.”
Polman fled Canada to wed an ISIS soldier she met online, but she claims she was mistreated by both her husband and ISIS and quickly lost faith in both.
The Integrated National Security Enforcement Team has been looking into Chouay, according to the RCMP, since November 2014.
She is also accused of conspiring to leave Canada in order to engage in terrorist group activities, supplying property for terrorist uses, and participating in terrorist group activity.
Prof. Amaranth Amarasingam of Queen’s University stated, “Canada did the right thing bringing the two women back this week because they were dealing with major medical concerns in the camps.
Yet, according to Amarasingam, a terrorism researcher who has been examining foreign fighters, it is “very astonishing that over 20 children and roughly a dozen women stay in the camps.”
Instead of what is happening today, it would have made much more sense to simply bring them all back at once.
In Syria, about a dozen Canadian women, men, and their kids are still detained.
Self-declared ISIS members and those who insist they were tricked into going to Syria are among them.
When a second lady from British Columbia who had allegedly joined ISIS returned to Canada in November, she was detained on a terrorism peace bond. The government of Canada did not assist in her rescue from Syria.
Her daughter and an orphan are the only others brought to Canada from the camps.
Mohammed Khalifa, another Canadian who was sent to the US last year, admitted to carrying out executions of detainees on camera.
bell@globalnews.ca, Stewart
Two women are detained by the RCMP after they enter Canada from camps in Syria.
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