A woman who survived being enslaved by Islamic State terrorists will testify against two Australian women accused of slavery and crimes against humanity. The alleged victim, a Yazidi woman still believed to be in Iraq, cannot be identified for legal reasons. She will appear by videolink to give evidence against grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31.
The pair remain in custody after a brief court appearance on Tuesday via videolink from the maximum-security Dame Phyllis Frost Centre. During the hearing at Melbourne Magistrates' Court, they smiled and waved at supporters from separate rooms.
The former slave's connection to the Australian women has not yet been disclosed in court, but she has previously spoken about her harrowing experiences under ISIS. The court heard the Yazidi woman remains traumatised by her ordeal.
According to Daily Mail, the woman was captured by ISIS fighters in 2014 when she was a young pre-teen. She told authorities she was snatched from her home and sold into slavery to families of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria. For five years, she endured brutality and fear before being freed and returned to her family, though the mental anguish persists.
Thousands of women and children were enslaved by ISIS, targeting Yazidis, Christians, Shiite Turkmen, and Shiite Shabak communities. The extremists captured thousands of Yazidis from Sinjar, near the Syrian border, and surrounding areas, killing many others. Young women were forced into sexual slavery, and mass graves containing thousands of victims are still being uncovered.
Victorian Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan was told that the defence did not oppose a prosecution application for the former slave to appear by video. In criminal proceedings, witnesses usually appear in person unless they are the victim of the alleged crime.
Charges and Allegations
Abbas faces charges of enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave, and slave trading, each carrying a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. Charge sheets allege she enslaved, possessed, and used the slave in Mayadin, Hajin, Gharanji, Bahra, Abu Hamam, Walaa, and other locations in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province between June 2017 and November 2018.
Detectives allege Abbas travelled to the region with her husband and children in 2014. They claim she was complicit in buying a female slave for US$10,000 and knowingly kept the woman in her home. Ahmad is similarly charged with enslavement and using a slave over the same period, with police alleging she knowingly kept a female slave in her Syrian home.
The charge sheet states the pair's conduct was 'committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systemic attack directed against a civilian population'. Police said the pair were detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held with other family members in the Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp.
Return to Australia and Legal Proceedings
The mother and daughter were among a group of women and children who returned to Australia amid chaotic airport scenes on Thursday after years in a Syrian refugee camp. They will remain in custody until next month when they are expected to apply for bail.
Abbas is represented by Melbourne barrister Peter Morrissey, SC, who represented Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran during their appeals in Indonesia. Ahmad is represented by barrister Grace Morgan, who is expected to run the first bail application.
They are among three returnees charged following a decade-long investigation that began after the women travelled to the Middle East with their partners, who allegedly intended to fight for Islamic State. A third woman, 32-year-old Janai Safar, who flew into Sydney, was arrested and charged with entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation. She was denied bail and will return to Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on July 15. A fourth woman, Zeinab's sister Zahra Ahmad, 33, returned with the group but was released without charge.
