MELBOURNE, Australia — A 34-year-old woman from Melbourne faces terrorism charges after Australian authorities accused her of joining ISIS in Syria, according to police officials.
Australia Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Hilda Sirec announced Thursday that the woman was taken into custody at her Melbourne residence eight months following her return to Australia through Lebanon, accompanied by another woman.
The charges come just two days after 19 individuals — seven women and 12 children with ISIS connections — arrived back in Australia from a Syrian refugee facility, despite opposition from the Australian government.
Last month, 13 additional people in comparable situations returned from the Roj displacement camp, situated close to where Syria’s borders meet Turkey and Iraq. Upon their arrival, three of the four women in that group faced slavery and terrorism charges and were detained.
Sirec stated that all women who have returned from Syria this month continue to face police scrutiny. The companion who traveled with Thursday’s arrestee from Lebanon is also under investigation.
“A period of time passing without charges does indicate investigations have ceased,” Sirec noted.
The Melbourne woman was scheduled to appear Thursday before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on charges of entering and staying in a designated conflict area and joining ISIS as a terrorist organization. Both charges could result in up to 10 years imprisonment.
Authorities claim she journeyed to Syria during 2013 and 2014 to become an ISIS member. Kurdish forces captured her in March 2019 following ISIS’s defeat and held her at al-Hol displacement camp.
Police allege her return to Australia occurred on September 26.
Janai Safar, 32, from Sydney, received similar charges upon her May 7 arrival in Australia with her 9-year-old son. A magistrate denied her bail request, requiring her to serve a minimum two-month prison term in Sydney.
Authorities claim Safar followed her ISIS-fighter partner to Syria in 2015 and gave birth to a child there. The partner reportedly died in 2017. Australian law prohibited citizens from traveling to Raqqa, the former ISIS stronghold in Syria, without legitimate purposes from 2014 through 2017.
Kawsar Ahmed, also called Kawsar Abbas, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, faced charges in a Melbourne court on May 8 related to accusations that their family purchased a female Yazidi slave for $10,000 while in Syria, police reported.
The daughter plans to seek bail next week, while the mother has a bail hearing set for June 16.
