An Australian court has granted conditional bail to a woman accused of entering and staying in Isis-controlled areas in Syria.
Mariam Raad, 31, faces charges of entering Isis-controlled areas in Syria in 2014. She was granted bail by the Griffith Local Court in New South Wales.
Ms Raad returned to Australia in October last year. Police arrested Ms Raad on Thursday, alleging that she willingly travelled to Syria in early 2014 to join her husband and that she was fully aware he was an active member of Isis.
Her husband is believed to have died in Syria in 2018, they added.
ABC News reported that Ms Raad’s defence lawyer argued there was “no evidence” she was an ongoing threat to people and had strong ties to her community in Young, a town in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales.
Ms Raad was granted bail under strict conditions. She was warned that if she breached any of those she would be arrested again and in that instance, her chances of getting bail would be “very slim”.
Ms Raad is expected to appear in court again on 15 March.
Australian law deems it an offence to enter or stay in areas where the government has declared “a listed terrorist organisation is engaging in a hostile activity”, setting punishments at up to 10 years in jail.
The court said that Ms Raad’s bail conditions included that she surrender her passport, report to police every Monday and not communicate with associates of “terrorist organisations”.
Ms Raad was charged after a joint investigation between NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police that began when she entered Syria and continued after her return. Until October last year, Ms Raad had been living in the al-Roj camp in northern Syria.
Meanwhile, deputy opposition leader Sussan Ley said that the development showed it was not in the national interest to continue repatriations.
Ms Raad’s lawyer, Moustafa Khier of Birchgrove Legal, told the Guardian that the court heard of the “wealth of evidence” that Ms Raad had been working hard to reintegrate herself and her family. “Mariam has always said that she would comply with any government orders,” Mr Khier said.
Federal treasurer Jim Chalmers told ABC News: “Our assurance for the Australian people … is we will always do what is in the interest of community safety and making these decisions for the right reasons and well-founded decisions.”
“So people can expect us to continue to monitor and take all the necessary steps,” he added.
