Two women with alleged connections to ISIS are facing charges related to crimes against humanity, while a third is expected to be charged with terrorist group involvement, following their anticipated return to Australia.
Authorities apprehended two women, aged 53 and 31, upon their arrival at Melbourne Airport. Meanwhile, a third woman, 32-year-old Janai Safar, who was traveling with her nine-year-old son, was detained in Sydney.
According to AFP Assistant Commissioner for Counter Terrorism, Stephen Nutt, the older woman is likely to face four charges involving crimes against humanity, including enslavement, possession of a slave, and participation in slave trading. The 31-year-old is anticipated to be charged with enslavement and slave usage.
Each of these charges carries a potential sentence of up to 25 years if the individuals are found guilty.
Nutt further mentioned that the 32-year-old woman who arrived in Sydney is expected to face charges for entering or remaining in a declared area and for being a member of a terrorist organization.
The return of these four women, often referred to as “ISIS brides,” along with nine children who had been living in Syria’s Al-Roj refugee camp, led to significant police activity at the Melbourne and Sydney airports. This follows weeks of intense political debate and speculation.
The cohort who followed their ISIS partners to Syria more than a decade ago have faced a long journey in their return to Australia.
The women and their children have been held in refugee camps in north-eastern Syria for years, following the collapse of ISIS, and recently failed in an attempt to leave the camp for Australia earlier this year.
The families left the notorious Al-Roj camp for the Syrian capital in their second bid to return to Australia nearly two weeks ago, and had been waiting in limbo in Damascus since.
On Wednesday, the Australian government confirmed the group had booked flights to Australia.
The women were looking forward to drinking a latte on Melbourne’s Collins Street, according to an ABC journalist on the flight from Doha who spoke to the women before boarding.
Some of the children reportedly have Australian accents, despite being born in Syria and never setting foot in Australia.
The Australian government insists it has not helped the group return to Australia.
Former immigration department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said there was no doubt the government had been “involved in the sense that they’ve had people monitoring these groups”.
“Moreover, when they applied for passports, those passports would have been processed … so in that sense the government was involved,” he said.
“The distinction I think the government is making is they were not involved in the repatriation. They did not arrange or pay for these people to return.”
The opposition had called for the government to cancel their travel documents or make a temporary exclusion order to keep the entire cohort out of the country but the government argued that as Australian citizens they were allowed to travel.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other ministers repeatedly urged the women not to return to Australia.
Nutt tonight said whether or not the alleged crimes rose to a level that would justify a temporary exclusion order was a matter for the Home Affairs Department.
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie and independent Senator David Pocock provided an example of the debate this morning on Today.
McKenzie said there were “serious concerns” around the group of women, and claimed the children were “already radicalised”.
“I want to know why the government hasn’t cancelled their travel documents under national security grounds,” she said.
Pocock pointed out the women were Australian citizens, but that nonetheless the public expected “the full force of the law” to be enacted but argued “Australian children deserve a second chance”.
He said it was preferable that the group be in Australia where they could face legal repercussions and de-radicalisation programs, but McKenzie claimed the programs had a low success rate.
“I think the thing we really have to distinguish between, is grown adults, and children who have had no say in going overseas,” Pocock said.
The women arrested tonight could face court as early as tomorrow if they are charged tonight.
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