The Opposition has called for additional guarantees as a woman accused of joining Islamic State and allegedly indoctrinating her children was granted bail.
Rayann El Houli, 34, was bailed in Melbourne on Monday on charges of travelling to a declared conflict zone and joining a terror outfit.
Opposing bail last week, an Australian Federal Police officer alleged Houli recorded herself showing extremist material to her children and pushing them to behave as fighters.
Her bailing from a Victorian Magistrate’s court drew immediate interest from the Opposition.
Shadow Home Affairs and Immigration Minister Jonathon Duniam told Sky News he was critical of the handling of the ISIS brides “from the get-go”.
“I am very sceptical of any reason to allow these people into the public, I didn’t want to let them back into Australia, we’ve had that debate though,” he said
“The question now is, how do we keep the community safe with a person like that, that [allegedly] exposes children to the hate-filled and disgusting propaganda that ISIS would believe to be right?
“So, it’s going to come at a great cost to the taxpayer, of course. There’ll be, no doubt, police monitoring between state and federal police agencies and again that question of safety and security for our community.
“I want to know what guarantees are going to be in place when it comes to the [situation] this person is going to be living in.”
Ms Houli has not participated in a formal de-radicalisation program, but Magistrate Brett Sonnet believed the risk of reoffending to be relatively low.
He found Ms El Houli had established exceptional circumstances to justify being released on bail.
“In my view the application for bail must be granted,” the magistrate said.
He accepted defence submissions contending Ms Houli’s time in remand could outstretch any imprisonment period she might be dealt if found guilty.
The prosecution strongly opposed bail, arguing Ms Houli posed an unacceptable risk to community safety.
Giving evidence last week, Australian Federal Police senior constable Paul Sherlock said it was alleged communications, sent back to her family before the fall of Islamic State in 2019, “provided an insight into her support of IS”.
These allegedly included messages encouraging others to travel to Syria and videos capturing her showing her children extremist material.
One video, filmed in March 2016, allegedly shows her asking her eldest child, aged just two at the time: “Did you see how the mujahideen killed the kuffar (infidel) with the knife?”
Transcripts tendered to the court also alleged the woman recorded footage involving her young children and a firearm.
“Look at me,” she allegedly said.
“How did they slaughter them with the knife? Look at me. How do they slaughter the apostate? Show me how.”
Mr Sonnet said while the videos were disturbing, he accepted the evidence of clinical psychologist Katie Seidler, who told the court she had assessed Ms El Houli as a low risk person after using a terrorism assessment tool.
It is alleged Ms Houli travelled to Syria in 2014 as a 21- or 22-year-old woman.
After allegedly marrying two now-slain jihadi husbands, Ms Houli divorced a third husband and was held in Syria’s al-Hawl detention camp since 2019.
She returned to Australia last year and the court heard she lived amongst the Melbourne community for eight months before receiving terrorism charges.
A family member provided a $75,000 surety for Ms Houli’s release.
Ms El Houli is expected to be released from custody on Monday afternoon.