A witness testifying on the trial of a Canadian girl accused of becoming a member of ISIS in Syria has described watching her shut good friend turn into “brainwashed.”
Naveed Deol stated she and Ammara Amjad had been as soon as like sisters. However Amjad’s extremist rhetoric finally turned so preachy that they parted methods.
“It simply wasn’t the identical particular person,” Deol testified.
Captured in Syria in the course of the 2019 defeat of ISIS, Amjad is presently on trial in Brampton, Ont., for collaborating within the actions of a terrorist group.
She is the primary Canadian girl to face prison prosecution for allegedly dwelling below the Islamic State in Syria as the fear group dedicated atrocities.
The Crown wrapped up its case towards the Pakistan-born 32-year-old mom of two on Wednesday, following testimony from the RCMP officer who extracted Amjad’s messages from her mom’s cellphone.
Prosecutors have alleged that Amjad was an “extremist traveller” who left Canada in 2015 to stay below ISIS rule, and remained with the group till its collapse in early 2019.
She married two ISIS fighters, Canadian Bilal Khan and British citizen Hamza Parvez, promoted the fear group’s ideology to household and buddies and requested them for cash, the Crown alleged.
The prosecution has argued that not all terrorists carry weapons and combat, and that girls performed key roles in ISIS as wives, moms and supporters.
“Within the eyes of ISIS, these roles weren’t separate from the group’s actions,” the Crown stated. “They’re a part of how ISIS sustained itself, strengthened its ranks, maintained life inside its territory and superior its aims.”
Showing as a Crown witness on Tuesday, Deol described her former good friend’s sudden transformation — a change she blamed on Amjad’s first husband, Canadian extremist Bilal Khan.
Deol stated she first met Amjad when their households lived in Montreal. She later moved in with the Amjads in Brampton whereas she accomplished her research.
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Removed from an extremist in her teenagers, Amjad got here from a cheerful Pakistani-Canadian household, would drink alcohol and take away her hijab as soon as she had left dwelling, Deol stated.
However in 2015, when the 2 met at a Boston Pizza, Amjad stated Khan had been sending her studying supplies, folks had been struggling and he or she needed to assist.
Then Amjad requested Deol to take her to the airport. She stated she was flying to Turkey to satisfy Khan, who was already within the Center East, she defined.
Deol stated she felt Amjad, then a 19-year previous Walmart employee who had by no means confirmed any curiosity in politics or present affairs, was having an “existential disaster.”
Though Amjad was imprecise about specifics, Deol suspected she was heading for Syria to affix an extremist group and refused to take her good friend to the airport.
“I used to be involved for her security,” Deol stated, including she feared Khan was deceptive a naive teenager. “I felt that he had brainwashed her.”
On March 17, 2015, Amjad utilized to resume her Canadian passport, writing that she was travelling on March 19. She allegedly crossed from Turkey into ISIS managed Syria.
Though she by no means gave away her location, she messaged Deol upon arriving to say that she had married Khan, a suspected ISIS fighter, and “was glad.”
“Bilal left at this time,” in accordance with a message Amjad despatched to Deol on WhatsApp. “I don’t know when he’s going to be again or even when he shall be again.”
When Khan was killed in November 2015, Amjad took it in stride, Deol stated. “She at all times knew that he was going to die and he or she was ready for it.”
Amjad later gave delivery to their little one, however the child solely lived a day. Once more, she was fatalistic. “I’m glad. No matter occurs, occurs for a motive,” she stated.
She then allegedly married British ISIS member Hamza Parvez. However she didn’t inform Deol something about her new husband, besides that that they had two children.
Deol, who stated she was not spiritual, stated Amjad would accuse her of being “blinded” and never understanding something, and that she wanted to consider the afterlife
Over time, they misplaced contact. Deol stated she was busy together with her personal life and had grown bored with the way in which Amjad spoke to her about faith.
By the point they reconnected, Amjad had been taken prisoner by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters and was being held at a camp for ISIS households in northeast Syria.
“I assume no matter group she was in, it ended,” Deol testified.
Deol stated Amjad requested her to ship cash however she refused. She didn’t wish to be related to somebody with extremist beliefs, she defined.
“I simply don’t know you anymore,” she informed Amjad.
The RCMP launched its investigation in 2019 after receiving a letter from the Canadian navy indicating that Amjad was being held at a camp in northeast Syria.
She was detained close to the Syrian city of Baghuz, the place the “hardcore” of ISIS made their final stand, RCMP Cpl. Mirella Mora, the lead investigator, testified.
The RCMP then requested the U.S. if it had any battlefield proof regarding Amjad, Khan or Parvez, she stated, and the FBI supplied a kind Parvez had allegedly accomplished upon getting into ISIS territory.
Amjad had spent 4 years in detention camps for ISIS suspects when the Canadian authorities introduced her dwelling from Syria in April 2023. She was charged with terrorism in October 2023.
Dozens of Canadian extremists left B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec to affix ISIS after the fear group emerged from Al Qaeda and seized components of Syria and Iraq.
Whereas many died, a number of had been captured in the course of the 2019 rout of ISIS. Canada has repatriated 9 girls from Syria, at vital expense. Two have pleaded responsible, however a half-dozen others haven’t been charged.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
