Uncle of ISIS bride Zeinab Ahmad denounces terror group as ‘evil’ in bail bid
The uncle of an ISIS-linked woman accused of slavery crimes has castigated the terror group as he fights for the woman to be released and live with him.
Self-employed mechanic Abraham Abbas took the stand in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday afternoon, on the second day of his nephew’s bail application.
Mr Abbas told the court he was prepared to offer 31-year-old Zeinab Ahmad a $75,000 bail guarantee and a place in his home if she was released.
Abbas, when asked about his views on ISIS, did not step back.
“I hate those bastards. I’m sorry, Your Honor, I do,” he said.
“I apologize for the language; they are evil and do not represent anything we believe in Islam.”
Both Zeinab Ahmad and her mother Kawsar Ahmad, 54, were charged with slavery crimes, including crimes against humanity, in a first for the country, after arriving at Melbourne Airport on May 7 after more than a decade abroad.
Police allege he was detained with family members, including children, in the Al Roj camp in northern Syria after surrendering to Kurdish forces following the capture of the Islamic State’s last stronghold of Baghouz in March 2019.
At the bail hearing that began Thursday, prosecutors alleged that his father, Mohammed Ahmed, who is detained in Iraq and has not yet been charged, bought a Yazidi teenager as a slave for $10,000 in about June 2017.
He allegedly told her, “I bought you with the intention of raping you and serving the house at the same time.”
The girl was captured by ISIS in northern Iraq at the age of 15 as part of “systemic” targeting of the Yazidi ethno-religious minority and was traded among about 17 ISIS fighters before being released in 2019, the court heard.
Australian Federal Police senior detective Marc Clendenning told the court the woman told police she was beaten, sexually assaulted “many times” and forced to do housework by Mohammed Ahmad before being sold to a different ISIS fighter in November 2018.
The court was told it was not alleged that Zeinab Ahmad assaulted the woman, but that she mistreated her, ordered her to do household chores and did not intervene when she was raped.
Constable Clendenning said Zeinab Ahmad’s social media posts and communications with family members in Australia allegedly showed “clear support for ISIS activities, goals and ideological tenets”.
Police opposed bail, arguing that Zeinab Ahmed posed an unacceptable risk to society and that she had clearly not renounced ISIS.
“Since surrendering to Kurdish forces, the defendant has never publicly renounced or stated that he does not support the Islamic State,” the official said.
Police alleged that Zeinab Ahmad moved to Syria to join ISIS with her parents, husband Dawod Elmir and other family members around January 2015, after first traveling separately to Türkiye.
Numerous family members, including Dawod and Zeinab Ahmad’s two brothers; The court was told Ahmad and Omar Ahmad were believed to have been killed by Coalition forces in 2016 and 2017.
Officer Clendenning’s cross-examination by defense attorney Grace Morgan focused largely on the restrictions women like Zeinab Ahmad faced while living under the Islamic State.
He argued that women had few rights and that Zeinab Ahmad had married three different ISIS fighters in three years, which the officer accepted.
Ms Morgan advised Constable Clendenning about the availability of reintegration programs and electronic monitoring should he be released on bail.
The bail application was adjourned until June 15 after the defense tried to question AFP Detective Sergeant Greg Adams, who took his statement about the alleged crime against the woman in Iraq in September 2019.
The court was told AFP had been tipped off by ASIO that the woman might have information about an Australian family.
Kawsar Ahmad is expected to apply for bail later this month.
