Montreal woman arrested for participating in a terrorist group years after she disappeared in Syria

MONTREAL — The RCMP have announced the arrest of a 27-year-old Montrealer on terrorism charges years after she disappeared in Syria.

In a press release on Wednesday, the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team revealed that Oumaima Chouay was arrested at Montreal airport after returning from Syria.

Chouay has been on the national security radar since November 2014, when she disappeared from her Montreal home and reportedly fled to Syria to join the ranks of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, or ISIS.

The Islamic State was among the insurgent groups fighting against the government during the Syrian civil war. Later he claimed a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq and claimed to have established an Islamic caliphate.

His terror tactics were both high profile and bloody brutal, including videos of captives being beheaded, shot or burned alive and calls for Muslims around the world to « emigrate » to the lands they controlled.

Many young people, including a hundred or more from Canada, answered the call, most of them going to Turkey and crossing the Turkish-Syrian border illegally.

Chouay faces four counts including participation in the activity of a terrorist group; providing goods or services for terrorist purposes and conspiring to leave Canada to participate in a terrorist group.

The Star contacted a man claiming to be Chouay’s husband in December 2015, who described the situation in Mosul, Iraq, where they were allegedly living at the time and which was under attack by fighter jets from Canada and Iraq. ‘other countries.

« The situation with the fighter jets is still the same, a few days ago they bombed a building with women (sic) and children, » he wrote, using a Facebook Messenger account belonging to Chouay. « I don’t know what (sic) I should talk to you about. The truth will never be written in a public magazine.

When the Star explained that the newspaper was looking for more information about Canadians who went to lie in Syria and Iraq, he replied:

“It’s not about Canadians or anything. Any Muslim who has understood (sic) his religion and wants to live it without any problem (sic) and criticism or anything, he will come here.

More soon.

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