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Sydney ‘ISIS bride’ facing terror charges has bail bid rejected
An ISIS bride who was arrested and charged with terror offences after arriving in Sydney from Syria last night will remain behind bars after her application for bail was rejected today.
Janai Safar, 32, appeared in Sydney Downing Centre via video link wearing prison greens and a white hijab, where she was refused bail over charges of entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
Both charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
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Safar's lawyer said an issue in the case will be how heavily involved she was with the terror group and whether she was pressured to go along with their activities.
Michael Ainsworth also noted the alleged offending occurred years ago and she was unlikely to reoffend.
"March 2017 is when she effectively leaves Raqqa, which means she's no longer in the declared zone and certainly no longer declared to be a participant of the organisation," Ainsworth told the court.
"We're looking at charges that are now effectively nine years old and offences alleged to be committed by her 12 years ago."
But Judge Daniel Covington ruled she did not meet the exceptional circumstances needed to be granted bail despite her nine-year-old son having never lived away from her.
"The factors have some strength, on the other hand I can't lose sight of … the serious nature of the charges," Covington said when denying bail.
Safar will return to court on July 15.
The Sydney woman's lawyers had sought an "urgent" psychologist report before making a bid for her release, according to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
The AFP, NSW Police Force, ASIO and NSW Crime Commission announced the 32-year-old woman had been charged for allegedly entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and joining ISIS just after she arrived in Australian soil at 11pm overnight.
Two other ISIS brides who were arrested after arriving in Melbourne yesterday have faced court and will make bail applications next week after they were charged with slavery offences allegedly committed during their time in Syria.
The two women, grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab, 31, were taken into custody by federal police as they landed at Melbourne International Airport yesterday evening.
In a packed courtroom, the women appeared separately. The elder woman appeared first, wearing a pink hijab, before the younger woman was led in afterwards, wearing a black hijab.
They were both remanded in custody until Monday, when they will apply for bail.
Abbas has been charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including possessing and using a slave, and Zeinab has been charged with two counts of crimes against humanity.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) will allege in court that Abbas travelled to Syria in 2014 with her husband and children, and was complicit in the purchase of a female slave for $US10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in the home.
Officers will allege that 31-year-old Zeinab travelled to Syria in 2014 with her family and knowingly kept a female slave in the home.
Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment.
AS IT HAPPENED: 'ISIS brides' and kids arrive in Australia
The return of four women commonly described as "ISIS brides" and nine children, who had spent years living in Syria's Al-Roj refugee camp after being detained by Kurdish forces in 2019, sparked major police operations at Melbourne and Sydney airports tonight, following weeks of heated on-and-off political debate.
The cohort who followed their ISIS partners to Syria more than a decade ago have faced a long journey in their return to Australia.
The women and their children have been held in refugee camps in north-eastern Syria for years, following the collapse of ISIS, and recently failed in an attempt to leave the camp for Australia earlier this year.
The families left the notorious Al-Roj camp for the Syrian capital in their second bid to return to Australia nearly two weeks ago, and had been waiting in limbo in Damascus since.
On Wednesday, the Australian government confirmed the group had booked flights to Australia.
The women were looking forward to drinking a latte on Melbourne's Collins Street, according to an ABC journalist on the flight from Doha who spoke to the women before boarding.
Some of the children reportedly have Australian accents, despite being born in Syria and never setting foot in Australia.
The Australian government insists it has not helped the group return to Australia.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Martin O'Brien assured Victorians that authorities would work hard to ensure there was no risk to the community.
"We want to reassure all Victorians that anyone residing in our state who has committed serious criminal offences, including those returning from conflict areas, will be held to account," O'Brien said.
Former immigration department deputy secretary Abul Rizvi said there was no doubt the government had been "involved in the sense that they've had people monitoring these groups".
"Moreover, when they applied for passports, those passports would have been processed … so in that sense the government was involved," he said.
"The distinction I think the government is making is they were not involved in the repatriation. They did not arrange or pay for these people to return."
Rizvi said the return would "set a precedent" for the other women and children connected to ISIS fighters to follow their path.
"They will seek to try to return, and we'll have to wait and see how that plays out," he said.
Nutt wouldn't comment on how many other women the AFP was expecting to return home.
He wouldn't say whether the fourth woman who arrived in Australia tonight would face charges, or detail any plans for monitoring of the children.
After the 32-year-old was charged, Nutt said Joint Counter Terrorism Teams investigated all Australians who went to declared conflict zones and promised to put anyone alleged to have committed a criminal offence before the courts.
"This remains an active investigation into very serious allegations".
The opposition had called for the government to cancel their travel documents or make a temporary exclusion order to keep the entire cohort out of the country but the government argued that as Australian citizens they were allowed to travel.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other ministers repeatedly urged the women not to return to Australia.
Nutt last night said whether or not the alleged crimes rose to a level that would justify a temporary exclusion order was a matter for the Home Affairs Department.
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Australian taxpayers to foot $2 million ‘ISIS bride’ bill
It will cost Australian taxpayers millions of dollars for the government to surveil and rehabilitate each so-called ISIS bride and their family, as the PM warns he has "zero sympathy" for the women who now face serious criminal charges.
The opposition previously claimed the cost of round-the-clock monitoring for high-risk individuals with links to the Islamic State terror group in Australia totals $2 million per person each year, a figure Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has been unable to deny.
When asked if the figure was accurate, Gallagher told ABC Radio National that the government will "spend what we need to spend to keep Australians safe".
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"I would suggest the opposition would have done exactly the same if they were in government," she added.
Gallagher said the children of the ISIS brides and fighters who have returned to Australia in particular will require a lot of assistance and government-managed programs to reintegrate into society.
"We've consistently said the parents of these children have made a terrible decision to either take those children or have children in these camps or warzones," Gallagher said.
"They are Australian citizens, they are entitled to Australian citizenship.
"We need to make sure they are supported and managed appropriately."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that, while the returning children are the "victims of decisions", he has little sympathy for their parents.
"I have absolutely zero sympathy for these people," Albanese told reporters in Melbourne.
"I do have sympathy for the children, though… It is appropriate that they undergo support, children who have been subject to all sorts of horrors at those camps."
The PM reiterated that the Australian government did not assist in repatriating the ISIS-linked citizens, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump.
"They were not brought back. We chose to make our own decisions as a sovereign state and not provide any support," he added.
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Victorian Liberal MP Jason Wood earlier claimed the exborbitant yearly cost is spent on constant surveillence, with some returning citizens requiring at least two officers.
Coalition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam previously criticised the Labor government for not stopping the Islamic-linked group from arriving on Australian soil.
"Australian taxpayers who can't pay their own bills are not going to be happy about people who went to join a terrorist organisation and support those perpetrating crimes under that organisation's banner, getting welfare payments," he said.
"It's not right."
Dozens of ISIS fighters and their brides have returned to Australia since 2013.
Government plans have been in place since 2014 to manage the returning citizens.
A 13-person cohort of ISIS brides and their children are due to return to Australia, among them are the three women who now face criminal charges.
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Three ISIS brides arrested and charged
Two ISIS brides who were arrested after arriving in Melbourne yesterday have been charged with slavery offences allegedly committed during their time in Syria.
The two women, grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab, 31, were taken into custody by federal police as they landed at Melbourne International Airport yesterday evening.
Abbas has now been charged with four counts of crimes against humanity, including possessing and using a slave, and Zeinab has been charged with two counts of crimes against humanity.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) will allege in court that Abbas travelled to Syria in 2014 with her husband and children, and was complicit in the purchase of a female slave for $US10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in the home.
Officers will allege that 31-year-old Zeinab travelled to Syria in 2014 with her family and knowingly kept a female slave in the home.
Each of the charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment.
The two women have faced court and will make bail applications.
The charges come after a third ISIS bride, 32-year-old Janai Safar, was arrested after she landed in Sydney from Syria.
Safar has been charged for allegedly entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and joining ISIS.
The 32-year-old was denied bail while appearing in court via video link today.
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Rebel Wilson accused of being ‘fantastical liar’ during defamation battle
Rebel Wilson has been lashed as a liar who made up terrible claims about her colleagues and completely rewrote history.
The Pitch Perfect star copped the blunt assessment in the dying hours of a fiery defamation battle where she is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the lead actor in musical comedy The Deb which Wilson directed, co-produced and starred in.
MacInnes claims Wilson defamed her in a series of social media posts that suggested she is a liar and a sellout who walked back a sexual misconduct complaint to further her career.
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The posts claimed MacInnes confided to the older actor, and later recanted, she felt uncomfortable when the film's co-producer Amanda Ghost asked to have a shower and a bath together.
MacInnes denies making or retracting a complaint, insisting she was not uncomfortable when the pair shared a bath in their swimwear after Ghost suffered a medical episode in September 2023.
MacInnes' barrister, Sue Chrysanthou SC, accused Wilson of a "complete revision of history" littered with dishonesty during her emphatic closing address in the Federal Court today.
She noted the Bridesmaids actor testified she told local producer Greer Simpkin about the alleged complaint on the day it was made to her, but that had been contradicted in court.
Simpkin gave evidence she hadn't heard that Wilson claimed her co-star felt uncomfortable about the incident until it was relayed by Ghost a week later.
It was just one example of glaring inconsistencies in Wilson's evidence which has been repudiated by others, Chrysanthou told the court.
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"She is a fantastical liar who has made up terrible, terrible allegations about multiple people and her own witnesses have discredited her," she said.
"We say Ms Wilson cannot be believed on anything she has said."
The first-time director lied to Ghost about receiving a complaint to create division between her and MacInnes, whom she sought to paint as a troublemaker, Chrysanthou said.
A text from Wilson which accused the young actor of leaking information to the film's writer makes it clear she was set on undermining MacInnes' relationships with others, she argued.
The uncontested facts of the bathroom incident are a medical episode occurred, no one felt uncomfortable and a witness didn't think anything untoward happened.
"One can hardly imagine a less sexy environment for some kind of harassment to occur, shaking and hives and tea provided by (the witness)," Chrysanthou told the court.
READ MORE: Australian taxpayers to foot $2 million 'ISIS bride' bill
MacInnes has suffered devastating harm as a result of the social media posts and hasn't worked since she starred in a stage production, a role which she had previously secured, her barrister said.
"My client has been unable to eat, unable to sleep, has been distressed … (she) fears what Rebel Wilson is going to do to her next," Chrysanthou said.
"No young woman dreams of being pulled into the spotlight by a celebrity and maligned".
But Wilson testified the young star doesn't appear to have sustained any damage to her reputation or career, pointing to the lead role and a six-figure record deal MacInnes has secured.
"She's changed her story, she's flip-flopped and she's been given huge benefits," she said.
Wilson gave evidence she had seen many photos of MacInnes on international trips and in expensive hotels, some of which had been sent to her by the "I hate Amanda Ghost fan club".
"Prior to The Deb she was relatively unknown and (I) understood she did not have the means to travel around the world in luxury," the A-lister wrote in her affidavit.
Her barrister, Dauid Sibtain SC, will begin his closing remarks on this afternoon.
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