ISIS bride' accused of enslaving teen, prosecutors argue against bail
Prosecutors have argued that a so-called "ISIS bride" actively participated in the mistreatment of a woman her family enslaved in Syria, as they fought to prevent her from being released on bail.
Warning: Details of sexual assault in this story may distress some readers.
Zeinab Ahmad, 31, was among the women arrested when a cohort of women and children returned to Australia after fleeing a Syrian refugee camp earlier this month.
Ms Ahmad was accused of actively participating in the deprivation of the human rights of a teenager her family kept as a slave while living in Islamic State-held Syria.
In a bail hearing that began in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday, Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning argued bail should be refused because of an unacceptable risk Ms Ahmad would endanger someone's safety.
In a statement of facts, read to the court by the counter-terrorism detective, it was alleged Ms Ahmad moved to Syria in 2015 with her family to support Islamic State.
It heard that in 2017, Ms Ahmad's father, Mohammad Ahmad, purchased a Yazidi teenager for $US10,000 ($14,000) to use as a slave.
The court heard the 15-year-old was then taken to live in the household, where she was sexually and physically assaulted.
"I bought you for the purposes of raping and serving the home," Ms Ahmad's father allegedly told the teenager.
Senior Constable Clendenning said Ms Ahmad never physically hurt the victim but treated her "very badly" and ordered her to carry out housework.
Cross-examination by Ms Ahmad's barrister, Grace Morgan, focused on the extent to which her client's freedom was itself restricted under Islamic State rule.
"To be quite blunt about it, the evidence that you have from [the complainant] suggests that my client's movements and liberties were severely restricted," she asked.
"In a broader sense, yes," Senior Constable Clendenning replied.
"That she lived in a male-dominated household, that she was married three times in three years," the defence lawyer continued.
"I believe so," Senior Constable Clendenning said.
Yazidi community said to be fearful of potential release
The 31-year-old was among several family members alleged to have travelled to Türkiye between May 2013 and November 2014, before migrating to Syria as a family unit around January 2015.
Her husband was killed in a drone strike in May the following year.
Senior Constable Clendenning told the court Ms Ahmad had entered into multiple marriages with Islamic State-linked men, had worked for the terrorist group and had expressed support for its activities on social media.
"The accused has never explicitly renounced or stated that she no longer supports the Islamic State since her surrender to Kurdish forces," he said.
He said this alleged conduct led police to hold "serious concerns that there is an unacceptable risk that the accused would endanger the safety or welfare of other persons if released".
"There are no bail conditions which will sufficiently ameliorate this risk and bail should not be granted."
Thursday's bail hearing also focused on the Ahmad family's alleged travel to Syria in support of the Islamic State and its subsequent treatment of an enslaved Yazidi woman.
Senior Constable Clendenning detailed how members of the ethnic and religious minority group were persecuted by members of Islamic State.
The court heard Ms Ahmad had no earlier criminal record and was aged in her early 20s at the time of the alleged offending.
Earlier in Thursday's hearing, prosecutor Andrew Sprague handed the magistrate a letter from a member of Australia's Yazidi community, prompting legal argument about the extent to which the community could be considered a victim in the case.
"It's victims, not parties, to which the law is directed," Ms Morgan contended.
Prosecutors argued both the specific alleged victim and members of the local Yazidi community more broadly would be extremely fearful if bail were granted.
The two-day hearing continues tomorrow.
