Police in Victoria have charged a Melbourne woman who travelled to Syria in 2013 or 2014 with joining the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said authorities had conducted searches at homes in the Melbourne suburbs of Broadmeadows and Fitzroy North early on Thursday as part of ongoing investigations under Operation Kurrajong.<\/p>\n
The woman, aged 34, returned with another woman from Lebanon in September 2025.<\/p>\n
Police in Victoria were continuing to investigate the other woman, AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec said in a briefing on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The woman is expected to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court today charged with entering or remaining in a declared area and being a member of a terrorist organisation, both offences carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Federal Police say a woman who returned from Syria has been charged with terrorism offences. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)<\/p>\n
Deputy Commissioner Hilda Sirec said the woman had been detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and was held with her family in the al-Hawl displaced persons camp in northern Syria.<\/p>\n
Operation Kurrajong is a joint operation of the AFP, domestic spy agency ASIO, and state and territory police through the Joint Counter Terrorism Teams focused on investigating individuals alleged to have travelled to Syria during the ISIS caliphate.<\/p>\n
“In the past three weeks, the New South Wales and Victoria joint terrorism teams have charged four women for terrorism-related offences or crimes against humanity or slavery offences,” Deputy Commissioner Hilda Sirec said.<\/p>\n
“Investigations are continuing in all recent adult female returnees who spent time in internally displaced persons camps in Syria.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Libby Murphy said community safety remained the greatest priority.<\/p>\n
A suspected stolen motor vehicle, electronic devices, documents and photographs were seized from the homes in Melbourne’s north, police said.<\/p>\n
“We have a responsibility to all Victorians to keep them safe which includes holding anyone who has committed serious offences to account,” Deputy Commissioner Murphy said.<\/p>\n
“We want to reassure the community that we are doing everything we can to ensure there is no risk to the Victorian community from those returning from conflict areas.”<\/p>\n
Look back at how ABC readers and other Australians responded to this live
\n moment.<\/p>\n
Thu 28 May 2026 at 12:34pm<\/p>\n
Thu 28 May 2026 at 12:34pm<\/p>\n
All the women who have returned under AFP investigation<\/p>\n
“All of the women that have returned recently are under investigation,” the AFP deputy commissioner confirms.<\/p>\n
Ms Sirec says she is unable to share details about the cases, or the location of the women.<\/p>\n
But she adds the AFP is aware of where these women are across the country.<\/p>\n
Thu 28 May 2026 at 12:32pm<\/p>\n
Thu 28 May 2026 at 12:32pm<\/p>\n
AFP not speculating on further charges<\/p>\n
A series of questions follow about other women being investigated by the AFP on similar charges.<\/p>\n
The deputy commissioner replies by pointing back to the arrest made today.<\/p>\n
“I am here to focus on this arrest,” she says.<\/p>\n
She does respond to a question about the women more generally.<\/p>\n
“At this stage, the women are being investigated, if we do obtain evidence that requires us to investigate further, we will do that.<\/p>\n
“I am not going to speculate if more charges will be laid.”<\/p>\n
Thu 28 May 2026 at 12:27pm<\/p>\n
Thu 28 May 2026 at 12:27pm<\/p>\n
AFP deputy commissioner says these matters are ‘highly complex’<\/p>\n
The deputy commissioner is asked why have some women who have returned been charged and others haven’t.<\/p>\n
Ms Sirec says these charges are “highly complex to investigate”.<\/p>\n
“You can appreciate that a lot of the evidence relates to overseas material particularly in conflict zones and access to overseas witnesses is challening,” she says.<\/p>\n
A follow up question about how some women were arrested at the airport upon arrival to Australia, instead of at a later date.<\/p>\n
Ms Sirec says “all operational decisions are made case by case”.<\/p>\n
Show moreReturns from Syria this month<\/p>\n
Two separate groups of women, referred to by media as “ISIS brides”, have returned to Sydney and Melbourne this month along with their children.<\/p>\n
“I want to underscore that a period without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased,” Deputy Commissioner Sirec said.<\/p>\n
“I won’t outline our operational strategies or who could face charges in the future, but I will confirm investigations are continuing in all recent adult female returnees who spent time in internally displaced persons camps in Syria.”<\/p>\n
Three of the returnees who arrived in early May have already been charged with various offences.<\/p>\n
Kawsar Ahmad and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad were charged upon arriving in Melbourne with crimes against humanity relating to allegations they kept a slave in Syria. A third woman was not charged with any offences.<\/p>\n
A woman who flew into Sydney, Janai Safar, was charged with travelling to a declared terrorist area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Both groups of women were at the notorious Al Roj camp, which is home to former IS members and their families. (Supplied: Save the Children\u00a0)<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, 19 women and children linked to the Islamic State group landed in Australia arrived in Melbourne and Sydney.<\/p>\n
Kirsty Rosse-Emile and Kawsar Kanj, and seven of their children, including an individual who recently turned 18, flew into Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Four women, including Aminah Zahab, her daughter Sumaya Zahab, her niece Nesrine Zahab, and Hyam Raad, along with six children, landed in Sydney.<\/p>\n
AFP said their belongings were searched and their devices downloaded, but no-one was arrested.<\/p>\n
Both groups of women and children had spent years in the notorious al-Roj camp in northern Syria.<\/p>\n
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said earlier this month that Australians should know “law enforcement and security agencies are doing everything they can to keep them safe, and that individuals are held to account for their actions”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police in Victoria have charged a Melbourne woman who travelled to Syria in 2013 or 2014 with joining…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":826930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,112683,256396,216928,50,5343],"class_list":["post-826929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-australian-federal-police","tag-isis-brides","tag-islamic-state","tag-news","tag-terrorism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116650076252977889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/826930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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