MELBOURNE, Australia — A defense attorney told an Australian court Friday that her client charged with enslaving a Yazidi teenager in Syria would accept electronic ankle monitoring and religious counseling as conditions of bail.
Zeinab Ahmad, 31, pursued her bail request in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on charges of slavery. The proceedings took place Thursday and Friday, with continuation scheduled for June 15 when defense lawyer Grace Morgan plans to call a police witness.
The mother of three would reside with her daughter at her uncle Abraham Abbas’s Melbourne residence. The mechanic expressed his contempt for the Islamic State group during court testimony.
“They’re evil and they don’t represent anything to do with Islam at all,” Abbas said.
Ahmad and her 53-year-old mother Kawsar Ahmad, also identified as Kawsar Abbas, have remained in custody on slavery charges since arriving back in Australia last month from a Syrian refugee camp alongside other Australian women and children connected to IS.
A Yazidi woman claims she was held in slavery at the Ahmad family residence during 2017 and 2018 in Raqqa, Syria, which was then an IS stronghold. The alleged victim also claims she suffered rape and beatings from the defendants’ husband and father Mohammed Ahmad, who remains imprisoned in Iraq.
Morgan informed the court her client would accept religious counseling if released through a police-administered program involving a council of imams designed to combat violent extremism.
Ahmad would also submit to what’s known as a control order featuring requirements such as electronic ankle monitoring and phone surveillance.
Courts typically impose these orders on convicted terrorists nearing the completion of prison sentences who still present an unacceptable public threat. The orders limit an individual’s behavior, travel and communications for a designated timeframe.
Two police officers testified Friday that such orders cannot legally substitute for or supplement bail conditions.
Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning, who leads the investigation, stated that electronic monitoring of Ahmad’s location and communications would not reduce the risk to acceptable levels.
“There’s a lot of unknown information about the accused’s ideology,” Clendenning said.
“The fact of being under Islamic State for over a decade, no conditions of that nature would ameliorate the risk,” he added.
Three generations of Ahmad family members relocated from Melbourne to Syria through Turkey between 2013 and 2014.
Morgan contended that since Victoria state has never previously prosecuted such slavery charges, the trial would require more time than typical criminal cases.
Detective Sgt. Matt Archer, who supervises the Joint Counter Terrorism Team, disagreed that it would necessarily extend beyond other prosecutions but acknowledged that first-time offenses create certain legal complications.
Australian authorities located the woman who claims she was enslaved in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq in 2019. Officials were unable to electronically record her interview regarding her accusations against the Ahmad family, but she submitted a written statement, according to prosecution materials.
Morgan questioned how defense attorneys could obtain all necessary evidence and documentation through the Kurdistan Regional Government, which governs Iraq’s semi-autonomous region.
Ahmad faces two crimes against humanity charges: enslavement and use of a slave. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years imprisonment.
