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Montreal woman sentenced for aiding ISIS

Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism – Omima Choi, 29, was returned to Canada in 2022 with her two young daughters. Omima Choi, who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago to join ISIS in Syria, is the first person in Canada to be convicted of providing family support to a terrorist organization as a spouse.

Choi was sentenced to one day of pretrial detention in addition to 110 days already served in pretrial detention, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC). The 29-year-old was also given a three-year conditional discharge.

The sentence was issued on the joint recommendation of the Crown Prosecution Service and Choi’s lawyer, Dominique Chofi.

In a statement, PPSC Director George Dolhi said the sentence reflects the steps “Ms. Choi has taken to demonstrate remorse, accept responsibility, commit to fundamental change and reject extremist ideology.”

At least two Canadian women and their children are returning from an ISIS detention camp. The two women were arrested in Canada after returning from a camp for the families of ISIS fighters in Syria. Choi was one of several Canadian women repatriated by Global Affairs Canada in 2022 from two detention camps in northern Syria for the wives and children of ISIS fighters.

She and another woman, Kimberly Pullman, who lives in British Columbia, were arrested by Canadian police as soon as they got off their planes.

Pullman is awaiting trial on charges of leaving Canada to participate in the activities of a terrorist group and also participating in the activities of a terrorist group. At the time, Choi was accompanied by her two daughters, now nine and seven, who were born in Syria, according to La Presse.

Choi’s sentencing marks the end of more than 10 years of suffering, as outlined in an agreed statement filed in court. According to the statement, Chuai traveled to Syria as a teenager to join ISIS, “knowing that her expected role would include marrying an ISIS fighter and raising children under ISIS teachings.”

She is not believed to have been directly involved in terrorist or combat activities.

After returning to Canada, Chuai underwent “depolarization therapy” and was assessed as having a “very low” risk of reoffending. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) determined that she posed no significant risk to society. “At least she is not dying in a detention camp in Syria. She has received justice here in Canada, as she should have,” said Lawrence Greenspon, an Ottawa-based lawyer who has advocated for the return of six Canadian women and 23 children held in Syrian detention camps, including Chuai and her daughters. Lawrence Greenspon, the lawyer for the 23 Canadian men, women and children held in ISIS detention camps in northeastern Syria. He won a case that forced the World Health Organization to bring the child, known as Amira, to Canada, calling it “the thin edge of the matter” that eventually led another federal judge to order the women’s return.

Few of them faced charges because of difficulties in obtaining evidence or a lack of evidence that they committed terrorism-related crimes — another reason to send them back to Canada, Greenspan said.

 

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