In brief
- Three women from IS-group-linked families are facing charges after arriving in Australia.
- One woman is accused of complicity in the purchase of a female slave for US$10,000.
A pair of women accused of crimes against humanity, who are linked to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group, are behind bars but plan to make bail applications after they were arrested on their return to Australia.
A 53-year-old and a 31-year-old faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning, charged with several crimes against humanity offences allegedly committed in Syria.
They landed back in Melbourne on Thursday evening as part of a larger group of women and children who lived in a Syrian refugee camp.
In a packed courtroom, the women appeared separately. They were both remanded in custody until Monday, when they will apply for bail.
Detectives allege the 53-year-old travelled to the region with her husband and children in 2014, and was complicit in the purchase of a female slave for US$10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in her home.
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It is alleged that the younger woman also had knowingly kept a female slave in her Syrian home in 2014.
Police said the pair were detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held with other family members in al-Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp.
Another woman landed in Sydney on Thursday evening and was one of three charged following a nearly decade-long investigation, which began after the women travelled to the Middle East with their partners, who intended to fight for the IS group.
She is set to appear at an NSW Bail Division court via an audiovisual link on Friday.
The 32-year-old is facing charges of entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
The Sydney woman's lawyers were seeking an "urgent" psychologist report before making a bid for her release, according to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
The Australian Federal Police's (AFP) counter-terrorism assistant commissioner, Stephen Nutt, said operational planning for the potential return of individuals from the Middle East started in 2015 but the investigation remains active.
A senior AFP officer would not answer questions on Thursday about the fate of the children, many of whom were born in Middle Eastern prison camps notorious for squalid conditions and the presence of extremist groups.
But they are expected to need significant support to help them adjust to life in Australia and to determine whether they've been radicalised while overseas.
Some of the women travelled willingly to support their partners who wanted to fight for the IS group, but advocates for the group say others were coerced or only went to the Middle East to keep their family together.
There were still unanswered questions about the financial cost of the cohort returning to Australia, Opposition home affairs spokesperson Jonno Duniam said on Thursday morning, claiming it may cost as much as $2 million a year to monitor each person.
"That's a lot of money being spent on managing 13 people who I say we should have done more to prevent coming back in the first place," he told Adelaide radio station FiveAA.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the opposition would have done the same when in government.
"We will spend what we need to spend to keep Australians safe," she told ABC Radio on Friday.
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