{"id":103460,"date":"2026-05-08T05:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/103460\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T05:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:20:13","slug":"3-australian-women-face-slavery-and-terrorism-charges-after-return-from-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/103460\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Australian women face slavery and terrorism charges after return from Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Three Australian women<\/a> were charged on Friday with slavery and terrorism offenses after they arrived home from Syria with another 10 others whom police allege are linked to the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

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

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, police said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n

Their lawyers said they would apply for both women to be released on bail on Monday. <\/p>\n

Abbas, her husband and children traveled in 2014 to Syria, which was then the center of IS\u2019s co-called caliphate, police allege.<\/p>\n

Abbas was complicit in buying the slave, who was kept in the family home, police allege.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Both women were detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and have been held with other family members at Roj Camp since.<\/p>\n

Another 32-year-old woman was arrested at Sydney Airport and charged with being a member of a terrorist organization and with entering or remaining in a region controlled by a terrorist organization. Each charge carries a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Police say she followed her IS-fighter partner to Syria. Australia made it illegal<\/a> to travel to the former Syrian Islamic State group stronghold of Raqqa without a legitimate reason from 2014 to 2017.<\/p>\n

She is expected to apply to be released on bail in a Sydney court later Friday.<\/p>\n

The Australian government has condemned the women for supporting Islamic State militants by traveling to Syria and refused to help repatriate them.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he had sympathy for the returned children, but none for the parents who could expect no government support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have absolutely zero sympathy for these people,\u201d Albanese told reporters. \u201cI do have sympathy for the children, who are victims of decisions that their parents have made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is appropriate that they undergo support: children who\u2019ve been subject and exposed to all sorts of horrors in those camps,\u201d Albanese added.<\/p>\n

Police have been investigating Australians\u2019 potential involvement in atrocities in Syria for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Another 21 Australian women and children remain in Roj Camp in northeast Syria near the Iraq border. Their supporters have told reporters they intend to repatriate them within weeks.<\/p>\n

One of those women is banned from returning to Australia by a temporary exclusion order.<\/p>\n

Australia can use such orders to prevent high-risk citizens from returning for up to two years.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Such orders can\u2019t be made against children younger than 14. But Australia has ruled out separating children from their mothers.<\/p>\n

Australian governments have repatriated Australian<\/a> women and children from Syrian detention camps on two occasions. Other Australians have returned without government assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Three Australian women were charged on Friday with slavery and terrorism offenses after they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1678,1648,6914,7833,2961,197,3375,1598,4277,34947,6815,95,1595,545,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-103460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-anthony-albanese","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-government","11":"tag-corruption","12":"tag-courts","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-indictments","15":"tag-islamic-state-group","16":"tag-law-enforcement","17":"tag-melbourne","18":"tag-sydney","19":"tag-syria","20":"tag-syria-government","21":"tag-terrorism","22":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116537276684727991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}