‘ISIS bride’ Mariam Raad gets bail from Australian court

Canberra [Australia], January 6 (ANI): An Australian court granted conditional bail on Friday to Mariam Raad arrested on charges of entering and remaining in areas of Syria to live with her husband who had joined the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS), reported The Australian.

However, Raad is forbidden from accessing, producing, or distributing any material related to explosives, weapons, anti-surveillance, executions, terrorist attacks, terrorist organizations or armed conflicts. Police arrested 31-year-old Mariam Raad on Thursday, saying she willingly travelled to Syria to join her husband, fully aware he was an active member of ISIS, reported The Australian.

According to court documents, Australian authorities alleged that she travelled to Syria in early 2014 to join her husband, Muhammad Zahab, who had left Australia a year earlier to join IS.

Raad was arrested on Thursday after a police raid on her home in the regional NSW town of Young. Her arrest came only three months after she was repatriated with 16 other women, reported The Australian.

The 31-year-old had been living at the Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp in Syria before her return to her home country.
Zahab is believed to have died in Syria in 2018 during an air strike. Raad has been charged with entering or remaining in declared areas contrary to the Criminal Code.

On Friday, Raad appeared in Griffith Local Court via audiovisual link to ask to be released from police custody. The court granted her request with a number of strict conditions which restrict her from contacting anyone who may be connected with a terrorist organization, reported The Australian.

The court ordered the 31-year-old not to acquire any firearms, prohibited weapons, or any materials which could be used to make a weapon or explosive.
She will be required to report to her local police station once a week, and not approach any international point of departure. Her passport has been surrendered to the authorities, reported The Australian.

It is pertinent to note that the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom earlier in February 2021 had ruled that “ISIS bride” Shamima Begum cannot return to the country to appeal the revocation of her UK citizenship.

She was 15 years old when in 2015 she left the UK with two school friends to join the terrorist organization ISIS in Syria. She was stripped of her British citizenship by then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid on February 19, 2019, upon being discovered in a northern Syrian refugee camp.