"ISIS bride" Mariam Raad Granted Conditional Bail in Australia
The Australian reported on Friday that an Australian judge granted conditional bail to Mariam Raad, who was arrested on allegations of entering and living in Syria with her husband, who had joined the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS).
However, Raad is restricted from engaging with or disseminating any content that advocates or promotes the use of violence, terrorism, or conflicts.
According to The Australian, on Thursday, police detained a 31-year-old woman named Mariam Raad on suspicion that she knowingly followed her husband, an active member of ISIS, to Syria.
Australian police claim in court documents that she joined her husband, Muhammad Zahab, in Syria in early 2014. Muhammad had left Australia the previous year to join ISIS.
On Thursday, police stormed Raad's house in Young, a small provincial city in New South Wales, and detained her. As reported by The Australian, her arrest occurred just three months after she and sixteen other women were deported. Before returning to her homeland Syria, the 31-year-old had been residing in the Al Roj IDP camp.
It is speculated that Zahab was killed in an airstrike in Syria in 2018. The Criminal Code states that Raad has violated the law by entering or residing in a declared area.
On Friday, Raad asked a judge at Griffith Local Court to free her from police custody over a video conference. According to The Australian, the judge accepted her plea but imposed several conditions that prevented her from contacting anyone who might be associated with a terrorist organization.
The court issued an order prohibiting the 31-year-old from purchasing or receiving any firearms, restricted weapons, or materials that may be used to construct a weapon or bomb.
She must check in with the police once a week and is forbidden from going near any airports or other ports of entry. According to The Australian, she has given up her passport to law enforcement.
Notably, in February 2021, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom declared that "ISIS bride" Shamima Begum may not return to the country to seek the revocation of her UK citizenship.
In 2015, at 15, she fled the United Kingdom with two other teenagers to join ISIS fighters in Syria. On February 19, 2019, she was discovered in a refugee camp in northern Syria, and at that point, Home Secretary Sajid Javid took away her British citizenship.