Ontario judges have ordered that two women who had been
detained by the RCMP on allegations of terrorism upon returning to Canada from a Syrian prison camp for ISIS suspects be released on bail.
The RCMP’s Federal Policing Integrated National Security Enforcement Team
arrested Ammara Amjad and Dure Ahmed at the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport on April 6, and began seeking a terrorism peace bond against them under Canada’s Criminal Code.
However, judges ordered that Amjad and Ahmed,
who appeared in court in Brampton Ont., on April 11,
be released pending their terrorism peace bond applications under certain conditions that are subject to publication bans.
Judges can use terrorism peace bonds to order defendants to enter into an arrangement where they must be of good behaviour, which could include conditions like an imposed curfew or certain weapons prohibitions. A prison sentence could ensue if the conditions are violated.
Amjad and Ahmed were among four Canadian women and 10 children who landed in Montreal on April 6 after being detained for a number of years at the al-Roj prison camp in northeastern Syria during the nation’s fight against the ISIS terrorist group.
The women and children were among many
foreign nationals in Syrian prison camps run by Kurdish forces that reclaimed the region from ISIS in 2019.
Lawrence Greenspon,
a lawyer whose Ottawa-based firm was hired by the women’s family, previously told The Epoch Times that the federal government had initially refused to facilitate the women and children’s return to Canada, but then agreed to repatriate them after he launched a court challenge arguing their charter rights were being violated.
In fact, the government had actually agreed to repatriate six women and 13 children, Greenspon said, but authorities were unable to locate two women and three children at the time of departure for Canada.
Of the four women who returned to Canada, three were arrested upon arrival and the fourth was not detained.
Besides Amjad and Ahmed, the third woman was
granted bail on April 7 in Edmonton pending a terrorism peace bond application.
On the same day, Alberta RCMP said the woman was subject to conditions while out on bail waiting for her peace bond application to process, but did not specify what the conditions were.
The Canadian Press and Marnie Cathcart contributed to this report.
