Sawt Falasteen - Australia charges woman with terrorism over IS links

Hundreds of women from Western nations were lured to the Middle East as IS gained prominence in the early 2010s, in many cases following husbands who had signed up as jihadist fighters.

A joint counter-terror police team said they will allege that the woman, 34, travelled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 with a man to join Islamic State.

The man is now believed to be imprisoned in the Middle East, they added.

The woman was then detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held in the al-Hawl Internally Displaced Persons camp until returning to Australia in September last year, they said.

She will face court on Thursday, police said.

Both charges carry a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Her arrest follows the return to Australia this month of a number of women and children linked to suspected Islamic State fighters.

Two women, a mother and a daughter, were arrested on arrival in Melbourne.

Police accused them of having kept a woman as a slave after travelling to Syria in 2014 to support the Islamic State group.

A third woman was also arrested on arrival in Sydney and charged with entering a restricted area and joining a terrorist organisation.

This week, 13 more IS-linked Australians -- four women and their nine children -- flew home from Syria.

In a statement following their landing, Australia's federal police said none of the cohort had been charged with an offence.

"It is important to note that a period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased," Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec said on Thursday.

"Investigations are continuing into all the recent adult female returnees from Syrian camps," she added.

- 'ISIS brides' -

Widely known as the "ISIS brides", the case has stirred strong debate in Australia.

Australia's Human Rights Commission urged the government in March to help repatriate those still there.

But others have accused the women of turning their back on Australia and believe they should be left to face the consequences.

Once in control of swathes of Syria and Iraq, IS was territorially defeated in 2019 in a battle spearheaded by Kurdish-led forces with support from a US-led international coalition.

M.AbuKhalil--SF-PST