“If there is evidence that any of the women have committed crimes then the appropriate place for them to be charged and prosecuted is in Australia, where we can put our faith in the country’s robust judicial and national security architecture.”
Well, gee, that’s swell. But in Syria, Mariam Raad was no threat to Australians at all. In Australia, whatever happens, that cannot be said with the same certainty.
“Returned Islamic State wife charged over alleged travel to terrorist stronghold,” by Maryanne Taouk and Kathleen Calderwood, ABC.net.au, January 5, 2023:
A 31-year-old woman who returned to New South Wales from Syria in October has been charged with entering or remaining in an area controlled by the so-called Islamic State group.
Police allege the woman, Mariam Raad, willingly travelled to the region to join her husband in 2014, and was aware of his activities with the terrorist group.
If found guilty, the offence carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Ms Raad’s husband is believed to have died in 2018.
She was charged in Young, in NSW’s South West Slopes region.
Four women and 13 children arrived from the Syrian Roj camp to Sydney in October last year.
The women were all married to IS fighters who are now dead or in jail.
At the time Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the repatriation was informed by national security advice, considering “the range of security, community and welfare factors in making the decision to repatriate”….
In October the repatriated women released a statement saying they were happy to be back.
“We are willing to do whatever is asked of us by government authorities to ensure the safety of our families and the Australian community and we will fully cooperate with all Australian law enforcement agencies,” the women said.
Save the Children Australia, which has been advocating for the return of Australian women and children from Syria, said the charges showed the repatriations would be scrutinised.
“Australia is showing that it is possible to repatriate its citizens while balancing any potential risks and ensuring the safety of the wider community,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“If there is evidence that any of the women have committed crimes then the appropriate place for them to be charged and prosecuted is in Australia, where we can put our faith in the country’s robust judicial and national security architecture.”…
tim gallagher says
The repatriation of these ISIS women and their children has been, as you would expect, quite a big issue here in Australia. I’d say that most Australians don’t want them brought back here. They were to be settled in the south western suburbs of Sydney, but in that area many victims of ISIS live (such as Yezidis, etc) and the mayors there kicked up quite a stink (as they should have done) about how the government was giving them no information. I heard the mayor of the country town, Young, which has had this woman in this report dumped on them complaining about the secrecy and the fact that, once again, the Labor government had given the locals no information about what they were doing. I imagine that it is going to cost a lot of taxpayers’ money to keep an eye on these ISIS scum. They should have been left in those camps overseas.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Why don’t they just carve out an empty territory in the Northern Territory/West Australia desert the size and shape of Syria, and then resettle these jihadists there? The climate will be identical to what they left in Syria (except for no Euphrates), and they can continue there like before. Yeah, ideally, they should have been left in Syria, but failing that, why are they brought to Sydney, of all places?
tim gallagher says
Infidel, I’m just guessing but i would say that the Federal Government, based in Canberra, over on the east coast of Australia would not even think of either West Australia (so far away that it is almost like another country and West Australians often seem to act as if they are not part of the rest of Australia, ditto for Northern territory- that’s just the way this huge land mass operates), when thinking about where to put these women. Some have been put in Sydney, but i was pleased to see the outrage from Labor mayors out in south western Sydney because of the ferocious reaction from the many people who live out in those suburbs who were victims of the murderous scum from ISIS. I guess that these women and their children were always going to end up back in Australia because they do have Australian citizenship and we are stuck with them. Occasionally when they have dual citizenship, we seem to be able to send them somewhere else, but only rarely. As for sneaking this woman into Young, I heard a mayor from Young who was pissed off at the secrecy in the way the government had sneakily sent her there and had not informed the authorities. Nasty, sneaky stuff from this labor government – no surprise there.
Keith O says
This charming little ISIS brood mare should have been left in the squalid hell she helped to create.
She renounced her Aussie citizenship, she was actively engaged in trying to recruit other naïve young girls to do the same thing and she was actively supporting her terrorist husband whom she knew was a area commander.
tim gallagher says
Yes, Keith O, isn’t it just great to have her back in Australia. And she’ll cost the taxpayer a fortune trying to make sure she doesn’t try to do damage to the Australian people and try to kill them in a terrorist attack. What a fine citizen she’ll be.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
If she renounced her Australian citizenship, how exactly does Australia ‘claim’ her? Even if she was conducting jihad, is it against Australian law to conduct jihad in foreign countries? Just curious
tim gallagher says
I’m not sure about the legality of these ISIS conducting jihad overseas, Infidel. I suspect that she didn’t renounce her Australian citizenship because, if she had done so, I think that even this piss weak type of Labor government would not have been stupid enough to bring her back. I’ll bet that all these ISIS creatures will have a huge amount of taxpayers’ money spent on them to try to prevent them trying to harm non-Muslim Australians.
John1 says
There was a time when the penalty for treason was DEATH. I’ll bet these 13 cubs of the caliphate rats they brought back with them will be the next generation of jihadi killers.
tim gallagher says
Very likely, John 1. They’ll definitely be a big risk and will cost plenty of taxpayers’ money to keep an eye on them.
PMK says
Whether or not this woman renounced her citizenship, does Australia have the right to strip her of her citizenship and prevent repatriation? Why is permanent exile no longer a valid punishment? This woman made her choice. Let her live with it.
tim gallagher says
PMK, here in Australia, I have constantly heard commentators say that, if these evil ISIS creatures are Australian citizens, and if they don’t have dual citizenship, then we have to take them back. I don’t know what the legal position really is. I did hear one commentator say that we can’t just leave them in the camps in Syria or whatever because it is unfair to expect Syria to put up with them forever. I guess that it is true that nobody would want the scum anyway. I agree with you. These evil people knew what they doing in joining ISIS so they should be left to rot away where they are in those shitty camps you see them living in.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Tim
The only fault w/ that reasoning is that Syria does not control all of Syria, and if it did, they’d have no compunctions about executing them. That is why they want to come back to Australia or other Western countries, if they want that. Point is that the Assad regime has not, to the best of my knowledge, asked Western countries to take them back, so there is no reason to assume that that’s what they want
Also, I know that citizens of every country are considered ‘sacred’ by their governments whenever they are abroad, but it’s high time governments made exceptions for terrorists and other criminals. Like if a person was arrested in another country for vandalism or worse, there is no reason that his home country should want him back: they should allow the host country to inflict whatever punishment they wish. For terrorists, it’s even more of a no-brainer
tim gallagher says
Everything that you say there makes sense to me, Infidel. And especially for terrorists and people who joined the satanically evil ISIS mob. I do believe that most Australians do not want these people back and I certainly do not believe that they should be brought back here (or to any other western country). I’m pretty sure though that, if they are Australian citizens, we will always end up taking them back. That seems to me what Australia will always do. LIke many western countries, we are pretty soft. Where people have dual citizenship, they do manage to get rid of some people. Like many countries, Australia has a problem with outlaw motorcycle gangs and I can recall that they managed to throw out a bikie gangster leader because he had Maltese citizenship and was sent back to Malta. Many New Zealand criminals have not bothered to become Australian citizens and have been sent back to New Zealand which the Ardern government in NZ was whingeing about recently. They wanted us to keep them here.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Actually, Tim, you just gave me another idea 😈 Why don’t you just send them to New Zealand, and tell them that it’s either Christchurch or Raqqa? I’m sure Ardern would have a meltdown before she allows any devout muslim to be left stranded in Raqqa
tim gallagher says
Good idea, Infidel. Yes, the Queen of Wokeness and of sucking up to islam, Ardern, would be only too willing to take them I imagine. I don’t follow much about New Zealand, despite its closeness, but recently I have heard a few commentators saying that Ardern’s popularity is slipping a lot in NZ. Apparently things aren’t going that well over there so maybe they will wake up and dump her at the next election. Some commentators mention that Ardern seems like the type of person who would love to end up with some type of job at the UN. I can imagine she’d love all the virtue signalling and telling everybody how they should live their lives at the UN.
Hank says
Tsk, tsk, tsk. All the self-inflicted, permanent problems non-Muslim countries “enjoy” for giving citizenship to Muslims. Its common sense that you don’t hand out citizenship to a 5th column group that’s out to get you and usurp your country. It is clearly written in the Quran for clueless politicians. Just expel and deport the illegal Muslim invasion. Giving citizenship to Muslims means getting stuck with the Islamic pathogen.