{"id":9177,"date":"2026-11-04T17:16:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T17:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/04\/canadian-woman-accused-of-joining-isis-was-brainwashed-former-friend-testifies-globalnews-ca\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T17:16:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T17:16:48","slug":"canadian-woman-accused-of-joining-isis-was-brainwashed-former-friend-testifies-globalnews-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/04\/canadian-woman-accused-of-joining-isis-was-brainwashed-former-friend-testifies-globalnews-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian woman accused of joining ISIS was \u2018brainwashed,\u2019 former friend testifies | Globalnews.ca"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A witness testifying at the trial of a Canadian woman accused of joining ISIS in Syria has described watching her close friend become \u201cbrainwashed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Naveed Deol said she and Ammara Amjad<\/a> were once like sisters. But Amjad\u2019s extremist rhetoric eventually became so preachy that they parted ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just wasn\u2019t the same person,\u201d Deol testified.<\/p>\n

Captured in Syria during the 2019 defeat of ISIS<\/a>, Amjad is currently on trial in Brampton, Ont., for participating in the activities of a terrorist group.<\/p>\n

She is the first Canadian woman to face criminal prosecution for allegedly living under the Islamic State in Syria as the terror group committed atrocities.<\/p>\n

The Crown wrapped up its case against the Pakistan-born 32-year-old mother of two on Wednesday, following testimony from the RCMP officer who extracted Amjad\u2019s messages from her mother\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n

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Appearing as a Crown witness on Tuesday, Deol described her former friend\u2019s sudden transformation \u2014 a change she blamed on Amjad\u2019s first husband, Canadian extremist Bilal Khan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Deol said she first met Amjad when their families lived in Montreal. She later moved in with the Amjads in Brampton while she completed her studies.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t‘Existential crisis’\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Far from an extremist in her teens, Amjad came from a happy Pakistani-Canadian family, would drink alcohol and remove her hijab once she had left home, Deol said.<\/p>\n

But in 2015, when the two met at a Boston Pizza, Amjad said Khan had been sending her reading materials, people were suffering and she wanted to help.<\/p>\n

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Then Amjad asked Deol to take her to the airport. She said she was flying to Turkey to meet Khan, who was already in the Middle East, she explained.<\/p>\n

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Deol said she felt Amjad, then a 19-year old Walmart worker who had never showed any interest in politics or current affairs, was having an \u201cexistential crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Amjad was vague about specifics, Deol suspected she was heading for Syria to join an extremist group and refused to take her friend to the airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was concerned for her safety,\u201d Deol said, adding she feared Khan was misleading a naive teenager. \u201cI felt that he had brainwashed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 17, 2015, Amjad applied to renew her Canadian passport, writing that she was travelling on March 19. She allegedly crossed from Turkey into ISIS controlled Syria.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t‘I’m happy’\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Although she never gave away her location, she messaged Deol upon arriving to say that she had married Khan, a suspected ISIS fighter, and \u201cwas happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBilal left today,\u201d according to a message Amjad sent to Deol on WhatsApp. \u201cI don\u2019t know when he\u2019s going to be back or even if he will be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Khan was killed in November 2015, Amjad took it in stride, Deol said. \u201cShe always knew that he was going to die and she was prepared for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amjad later gave birth to their child, but the baby only lived a day. Again, she was fatalistic. \u201cI\u2019m happy. Whatever happens, happens for a reason,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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