A 34-year-old woman allegedly linked to the Islamic State, who returned to Australia from Syria last year, has been charged with being a member of a terrorist organisation and entering a declared conflict zone, according to the Australian police.
The police said the woman, identified by the local media as Rayann El Houli, arrived in Australia in September with another lady and was to appear in a Melbourne court on Thursday.
Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Hilda Sirec told reporters that both of El Houli’s offences carried maximum penalties of up to 10 years in prison. Sirec said the 34-year-old traveled to Syria in 2013 or 2014 and was detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held in Syria’s al-Hawl camp.
Two groups of women and children arrived in Australia this month after spending years in the al-Roj camp in north-east Syria where families of Islamic State members have been held since 2019. Three of the women face various charges including crimes against humanity.
Sirec said all the adult women from the groups were being investigated, stating, “A period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased.”
The group who arrived in Sydney and Melbourne on Tuesday were concluded to be the last Australians in the al-Roj camp.
A mother and daughter duo who arrived in Melbourne as part of a group in early May was charged with enslavement and using a slave, with the mother also being charged with slave trading.
The series of IS-linked women and children returning back to Australia have been the central talking point of a heated political debate in the country. The government maintains that it has not given them any help to return, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese asserting “if you make your bed, you lie in it”.
Human rights group, however, argue that Australia must uphold the citizens’ right to return, and that the chidren in particular should be supported and not suffer for the decisions made by their parents.
