Australian Court Weighs Bail for Woman Accused of Yazidi Teenager’s Enslavement in Syria

MELBOURNE — A Melbourne magistrate is considering bail for a woman charged with enslaving a Yazidi teenager in Syria, with defense lawyers proposing strict monitoring conditions including an electronic ankle bracelet and religious deradicalization counseling.

Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and Friday facing two slavery charges. The hearing will resume June 15 when defense attorney Grace Morgan intends to call a police witness.

The mother of three would reside with her daughter at the home of her uncle, Abraham Abbas, a mechanic who testified that he “hated” the Islamic State group. “They’re evil and they don’t represent anything to do with Islam at all,” Abbas told the court.

Ahmad and her mother, Kawsar Ahmad, 53 — also known as Kawsar Abbas — have been detained since their repatriation from a Syrian refugee camp last month alongside other Australian women and children linked to the Islamic State.

Prosecutors allege a Yazidi woman was enslaved in the Ahmad family home in Raqqa, Syria — then an Islamic State stronghold — during 2017 and 2018. The complainant also alleges she was raped and beaten by Mohammed Ahmad, the defendants’ husband and father, who is currently imprisoned in Iraq.

Morgan said her client would accept a court-imposed control order — typically reserved for convicted terrorists nearing release who remain a threat — requiring electronic monitoring, phone surveillance, and participation in a police-and-imam-run program countering violent extremism.

Two police officers testified Friday that control orders cannot legally substitute for or supplement bail conditions. Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning, who leads the investigation, said electronic monitoring would not mitigate the risk Ahmad poses.

“There’s a lot of unknown information about the accused’s ideology,” Clendenning said. “The fact of being under Islamic State for over a decade — no conditions of that nature would ameliorate the risk.”

Three generations of the Ahmad family traveled from Melbourne to Syria via Turkey in 2013 and 2014. Morgan argued the unprecedented nature of the slavery charges in Victoria would prolong the trial beyond typical criminal proceedings. Detective Sergeant Matt Archer, a Joint Counter Terrorism Team supervisor, acknowledged the legal complexities of a first-time prosecution but disagreed it would necessarily extend the timeline.

Australian officials located the alleged victim in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region in 2019. Unable to record an interview electronically, they obtained a typed statement, according to prosecution evidence. Morgan questioned how the defense could secure relevant evidence and documents through the Kurdistan Regional Government, which administers the semi-autonomous area.

Ahmad faces two crimes-against-humanity charges — enslavement and use of a slave — each carrying a maximum 25-year prison sentence.

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