A woman accused of acting as a deputy while her father allegedly raped a young female slave at the height of Islamic State’s rule has been refused bail by an Australian court, which ruled the risk she posed to the community was too great to allow her release.
Zeinab Ahmad, 31, is facing two counts of crimes against humanity — enslavement and using a slave — in what are the first such charges to be prosecuted before an Australian court. Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan delivered an hour-long ruling on Wednesday refusing Ahmad’s bail application, dismissing her claims of having renounced Islamic State as insufficient to overcome evidence of her words and actions in Syria.
“They are made after her arrest, after separation from her daughter and in the context of an application for bail,” Ms Hannan said. “They are in my view insufficient to counter the evidence of her words and actions in Syria which exhibit clear risk to the community if they are still adhered to.” She added: “The risk of terrorism lies within, in belief systems, thoughts and adherence to the views of others who distort religious teachings to promote hate.”
Ahmad had hoped to be released into the care of her uncle, Abraham Abbas, who put up a $75,000 surety. Her lawyer Grace Morgan told the court Ahmad had renounced ISIS. “My client does not support Islamic State. She rejects the organisation. She has a deep anger towards it,” she said. But Ms Hannan said there was “no clear evidence of renunciation in the years she was in the IDP camps.”
The court heard Ahmad left Melbourne in November 2014, claiming she intended to spend seven months in Turkey. Authorities allege she arrived in Syria in January 2015, where she began posting extremist content to social media, including material justifying the killing of a Jordanian pilot by ISIS and declaring that the organisation would “destroy the United States and its allies.” Her husband, who was killed during the conflict, reportedly called himself a martyr in a note before his death. “This was his dream,” Ahmad allegedly wrote in tribute.
Among the most serious allegations, the court heard Ahmad ran the family home where her father Mohammad Ahmad allegedly kept a young female slave who had been captured by ISIS fighters as a 15-year-old after they murdered her mother and brother. Over five years, the girl was reportedly traded approximately 17 times between ISIS members who beat, tortured and raped her. The Ahmad family is accused of purchasing the girl for US$10,000 during Ramadan in 2017. Ahmad allegedly shared a bedroom with the slave and kept a Glock pistol in the room.
Commonwealth prosecutor Andrew Sprague argued Ahmad should remain in custody, saying her prior social media statements and ideological support meant “the risk to the public is unacceptable.”
Ahmad’s defence argued she had herself been a victim of violent and controlling men throughout her time in Syria, forced into three marriages in four years, subjected to violence and threats. “It ought not be assumed that my client’s freedoms were the same as she enjoys here in Australia,” Ms Morgan said. “Those structures of power and control applied to my client.” Defence counsel also argued Ahmad had on at least one occasion actively tried to protect the alleged slave from her father.
Ms Hannan also dismissed arguments based on the expected length of the proceedings and the impact of Ahmad’s continued custody on her daughter. “It is a sad fact that a parent’s ongoing custody affects a child negatively, however that of itself is not exceptional,” she said. The case could take more than three years to reach a verdict, the court was told.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. Ahmad was among a group of women with alleged ties to ISIS who flew into Australia on 7 May and were subsequently arrested. She will return to court on a date yet to be fixed.
