Australian Woman Charged With Slavery Offences Applies for Bail in Melbourne Court
Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared in Melbourne magistrates court on Thursday seeking bail after being charged with enslavement and using a slave. The charges relate to events in Syria in 2017 and 2018.
bbc.co.ukZeinab Ahmad, 31, applied for bail in Melbourne magistrates court on Thursday, one month after she was charged with enslavement and using a slave. Australian Federal Police allege Ahmad left Melbourne for Turkey with her husband Dawod in November 2014. She told migration officers she planned to stay in Turkey for seven months, but the couple moved to Syria in January 2015.
Dawod became an Islamic State member and died in a Syrian drone strike in May 2016, Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning told the court. After his death, Ahmad posted on social media that he had lived out his dream of becoming a martyr and called on Allah to destroy the United States and its allies.
Police say Ahmad was living in the family home in Syria in 2017 when her father, Mohammad, bought a teenage girl as a slave for US$10,000.
The girl was repeatedly raped and beaten by Mohammad, including an incident in which she was hit and dragged down two flights of stairs by the hair. The girl told police she screamed loudly during the assaults so that Ahmad and other family members would have known what was happening. The girl lived with the Ahmad family for 16 months before she was sold in November 2018.
She was sold a further seven times before she was freed from slavery. It is not alleged that Ahmad assaulted the girl, but the teen said she was treated very badly by the woman. Ahmad and her mother, Kawsar, 52, returned to Australia in May as part of a group of IS-linked women and children.
Ahmad was arrested at Melbourne airport upon arrival. In opposing bail, Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning told the court that Ahmad had married another two Islamic State members and was still married to an Egyptian-born fighter whose location was unknown.
He said Ahmad had never explicitly renounced Islamic State, pursued living under the group in Syria, was employed by Islamic State, and encouraged violence against individuals and governments.
He described her as an unacceptable risk of endangering the community. Human rights activist Robert Van Aalst, who helped the women and children return to Australia from Syria, attended the hearing along with supporters of Ahmad. The bail application before Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan will continue on Friday.
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