‘A terrible mistake’: B.C. ISIS bride Kimberley Polman, in her own words

Résumé détaillé

VANCOUVER - In 2015, Kimberly Polman was unemployed and living in low-income housing in British Columbia when she made a life-changing decision — she would move to war-torn Syria…

VANCOUVER - In 2015, Kimberly Polman was unemployed and living in low-income housing in British Columbia when she made a life-changing decision — she would move to war-torn Syria and join her husband in the Islamic State terrorist organization.

Polman’s story — her regrets, the circumstances of her fateful decision, and her fear of retribution from the terror group — are laid out in their most complete form in a statement of facts in her terrorism case.

The signed statement includes a handwritten two-page letter from Polman composed in the Roj refugee camp in Syria after her capture by U.S.-backed forces, as well as two pages of her handwritten notes.

It was obtained by The Canadian Press after Polman pleaded guilty last month to leaving Canada to participate in activities of a terrorist group.

Polman said in her letter, in which she begged to be allowed to return to Canada, that she “came to ISIS believing I could help women and children” as a nurse.

It was a mistake, “which I regret constantly and will for the rest of my life,” she wrote in the letter, dated April 3, 2019.

“Immediately I was thrown into a world of intense fear, unable to leave. My desire to help turned into my own need for help.”

The statement of facts does not explain how authorities obtained the letter, which Polman starts by saying “Dear Canadians.”

But her situation had been highlighted by media reports and interviews she gave in the camp.

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