Australian women face slavery and terror charges over alleged IS links

Three Australian women were refused bail after they appeared in court charged with slavery and terrorism offences after they arrived home from Syria with another 10 others whom police allege are linked to the so-called Islamic State group (IS).

The four women and nine children, who have spent years in Roj camp in the Syrian desert, landed on two Qatar Airways flights from Doha on Thursday despite the Australian government warning they would face charges if they returned.

Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmed, 31, were charged in a Melbourne court in relation to allegations that their family bought a female Yazidi slave for 10,000 Australian dollars (£5,300), police said.

Their lawyers said they would apply for both women to be released on bail on Monday. Neither woman spoke during their brief court appearance. Bail was formally denied.

Abbas, her husband and children travelled in 2014 to Syria, which was then the centre of IS’s co-called caliphate, police allege.

She was complicit in buying the slave, who was kept in the family home, officers claim.

The mother was charged with four crimes against humanity under Australian law, and the daughter was charged with two slavery crimes. Each charge carries a potential penalty of 25 years in prison.

Both women were detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and have been held with other family members at Roj camp since.

The camp in north-east Syria near the Iraq border houses mostly women and children who were displaced from areas that were once controlled by IS.

Janai Safar, 32, was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation and with entering or remaining in a region controlled by a terrorist organisation. Each charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

A judge refused to release her on Friday when she applied for bail in a Sydney court where she appeared via video link from prison.

Her lawyer unsuccessfully argued that exceptional circumstances in her case warranted her release from custody.

The lawyer submitted that both Safar and her nine-year-old son were likely both suffering from PTSD and the boy knew no-one else in Australia.

Police allege she followed her IS-fighter partner to Syria in 2015 and had a child there. The partner reportedly died in 2017.

Australia made it illegal to travel to the former Syrian IS group stronghold of Raqqa without a legitimate reason from 2014 to 2017.

The Australian government has condemned the women for supporting IS militants by traveling to Syria and refused to help repatriate them.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese said he had sympathy for the returned children, but none for the parents who could expect no government support.

“I have absolutely zero sympathy for these people,” Mr Albanese told reporters. “I do have sympathy for the children, who are victims of decisions that their parents have made.

“It is appropriate that they undergo support: children who’ve been subject and exposed to all sorts of horrors in those camps.”

Police have been investigating Australians’ potential involvement in atrocities in Syria for more than a decade.

Another 21 Australian women and children remain in Roj camp. Their supporters have told reporters they intend to repatriate them within weeks.

One of those women is banned from returning to Australia by a temporary exclusion order.

Australia can use such orders to prevent high-risk citizens from returning for up to two years.

The orders were created by laws introduced to in 2019 to prevent defeated IS fighters from returning to Australia. There are no public reports of an order being issued before.

Such orders cannot be made against children younger than 14. But Australia has ruled out separating children from their mothers.

Australian governments have repatriated Australian women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have returned without government assistance.