Australia’s last remaining Islamic State bride in the war zone and her disabled young child have disappeared into a Syrian prison system notorious for torture and abuse after the Albanese government stopped the mother from boarding a flight home.
When Hodan Abby was denied boarding a flight in Damascus with the last group of six woman in May because of a temporary exclusion order issued by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, she was not returned to the Roj internment camp in northeast Syria. She was sent to Idlib by Syrian officials.
The mother of a disabled daughter who desperately needs medical attention is now “lost in the system” and could be holed up in one of several notorious prisons in the west of the country with no means of communication with her family.
Idlib, a small city in Syria’s northwest, was where Syria’s new ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, wielded power through the militant group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The Australian can reveal that in one of her last messages with her family after being blocked from travelling to Australia, Abby told them she was “OK” and that she would be going to a detention centre in Idlib. That was understood to be the last time they heard from their daughter in more than three weeks.
The family did not wish to speak when approached by The Australian, but multiple sources confirmed she was in an unknown prison with no means of communication.
Abby, 29, escaped from her home in western Sydney in 2015 with a friend when she was 18 and was trapped in Kurdish-run camps for years with her daughter, who suffers from shrapnel wounds in her head, hip and back.
The Australian previously revealed her relatives had engaged Birchgrove Legal principal solicitor Moustafa Kheir, hoping to challenge the federal government-issued TEO, which is due to expire in February 2028. It’s understood the legal challenge has not been initiated; Mr Kheir did not respond to The Australian when approached for comment.
Although there are limited grounds to appeal a TEO, and such an order has not been tested before, an opportunity to apply for re-entry with control orders had been floating as a possible point of argument.
“The family has lost total contact with their daughter,” one source said. “They are worried about her safety and that is their only driving factor at the moment. It’s the only thing on their minds.
“The lawyer (Mr Kheir) is in the same boat. There’s no information coming from Hodan so they can’t seek instructions, they can’t progress anything at the moment.”
Another source said: “Hodan’s last message to her family was she was OK and … going to Idlib. She’s now in a detention centre but no one knows where.
“She’s messaged (her family) to say that’s where she is and that she was OK, but then nothing’s happened since.”
Despite having a choice to allow her child to travel to Australia last month, Abby chose not to be separated from her.
Her child, 9, has a series of debilitating medical conditions caused by shrapnel that has been in her body for most of her life. If the shrapnel is not removed soon, medical records show she could suffer permanent paralysis.
Conditions in Idlib facilities have over the years sparked waves of protests among the civilian population, with reports in 2011 of torture and abduction well documented by human rights organisations. There are fewer than a handful of prisons in Idlib, two of which were controlled by the HTS.
HTS was a Sunni Islamist extremist group that transitioned from a terror organisation into the governing authority of Syria after overthrowing the Bashar al-Assad regime. The former affiliates of al-Qa’ida have since dissolved their armed faction and its leaders hold top positions in the government.
The Human Rights Watch has documented rampant abuse, including poor medical negligence, overcrowding and torture of detainees held in facilities controlled by the HTS. The most notorious detention centre in Idlib is the Oqab Prison, where widespread torture was documented.
It’s unlikely Abby would be held here, but it is a possibility.
“Almost all former detainees interviewed by HRW said they had been subjected to torture or witnessed the torture of others during their detention,” HRW said about the prisons in Idlib in 2012.
“Interrogators, guards and officers used a broad range of torture methods, including prolonged beatings, often with objects such as batons and cables, holding detainees in painful stress positions for prolonged periods of time, the use of electricity, burning with acid, sexual assault and humiliation, the pulling of fingernails, and mock execution.”
It’s understood two other detention facilities in the region remain operational, the Idlib Central Prison and the Harem Central Prison, both of which also have documented reports of abuse.
Mohammad AlfaresJournalist