Ontario man testifies against former cellmate accused of kidnapping 14-year-old boy | Globalnews.ca

Hamed Shawnawaz , a former co-accused of Samir Abdelgadir , is on trial in the kidnapping of a Toronto teen in March 2020 .

He testified Friday that his former friend confided in him four days after the abduction.

The two met in the Maplehurst Institution in 2015 , where they spent 58 days together as cellmates.

He was sentenced to nine years and nine months in prison for two drive-by shootings in 2016 .

A 14-year-old boy whose identity is covered by a publication ban was abducted around 8:30 a.m. on March 4, 2020 , outside 345 Driftwood Ave. Witnesses reported seeing two men grabbing the teen and throwing him into a black Jeep Wrangler.

The teen was driven in the Jeep , in tandem with a black Tahoe and a white Mercedes SUV to a house on Edgeforest Drive in Brampton .

While there, the kidnappers asked for the password to his phone and how he communicated with his half -brother.

He was taken to the downstairs of the house where his feet were tied with a rope.

The kidnappers told the boy that was because his brother had.

Liban Hussein’s charges were also dropped following the preliminary hearing. He was subsequently murdered in March 2024 . Samid Abdelgadir has pleaded not guilty and is out on bail..