Female returnee charged with terrorism offences

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Good afternoon.

[00:00:01]Early this morning, the Victoria Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which includes Victoria Police, ASIO, and the Australian Federal Police, executed search warrants at homes in Broadmeadows and Fitzroy North.

[00:00:14]About 9:30 a.m., investigators charged a 34-year-old Broadmeadows woman with allegedly entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and joining ISIS.

[00:00:24][snorts] The woman, who returned to Australia in September 2025, is expected to appear before Melbourne's Magistrates' Court today.

[00:00:34]She will face charges of entering or remaining in a declared area and being a member of a terrorist organization.

[00:00:41]Both offenses carry a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

[00:00:45]It will be alleged the woman traveled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 to join ISIS.

[00:00:53]The woman was detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and held with her other family members in the Al Hawl internally displaced persons camp. She returned to Australia from Lebanon with another woman on 26 September 2025.

[00:01:09]Victoria Joint Counter Terrorism Team investigations are continuing into the other woman who returned from Lebanon.

[00:01:15]In the past 3 weeks, the New South Wales and Victoria Joint Counter Terrorism Teams have charged four women for terrorism-related offenses or crimes against humanity and slavery offenses.

[00:01:27]This has been exceptional work by our investigators, and I want to thank every member across all our agencies for their expertise and dedication to keeping our community safe.

[00:01:39]I also want to underscore that a period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that the investigations have ceased.

[00:01:48]I won't outline our operational strategies or who could face charges in the future, but I will confirm investigations are continuing in all recent adult female returnees who spent time in internally displaced persons camps in Syria.

[00:02:04]Thank you, and I'll take questions.

[00:02:06]>> What's the difference between people [snorts] who are charged with joining a terrorist proscribed area and those who are not being charged with the terrorist proscribed area since they were all there?

[00:02:17]>> So, these matters are highly complex to to investigate.

[00:02:21]Um we have to meet the evidentiary thresholds for legal court.

[00:02:26]Uh you can appreciate that a lot of the evidence relates to overseas material, particularly in conflict zones, and access to even overseas witnesses is challenging. So, when we do reach the legal thresholds of the Australian legal standard, we will place those charges with our partners.

[00:02:45]>> What's the difference between uh the treatment of the women who arrived the other day compared to the ones who had arrived earlier in terms of arrest at the airport?

[00:02:55]What Why was that decision made?

[00:02:57]>> All All uh operational decisions are made case by case. If evidentiary thresholds exist, then we will arrest and charge.

[00:03:06]>> You've been investigating this since 2014 but these people uh why's it taken so long?

[00:03:13]>> These are highly complex matters. As I said earlier, these matters relate to evidence uh admissible evidence uh challenging in conflict zones, and we need to be able to take the time and effort to make sure that the evidence is admissible and to a legal standard.

[00:03:30]>> We heard that one of the women who have recently turned 18 in those recent cohorts that have come back, uh are there any of the teens that are over the age of criminality and could potentially face charges?

[00:03:43]>> I'm not going to speculate on who will face charges except that if any criminal activity is identified and we do reach the legal threshold for uh placing charges, we will.

[00:03:55]>> How many children in that cohort in that age bracket?

[00:03:58]>> I'm not going to describe which the number of children that have become adults in that cohort. I'm here to talk about today the arrest that we've made.

[00:04:07]>> Are minors being investigated as part of this investigation? Are children available to the AFP to be charged?

[00:04:15]>> At this stage, the women are being investigated. If we do obtain evidence that requires us to investigate further, we'll we'll do that.

[00:04:25]>> Was the evidence in this case evidence that came from Syria and other authorities there, or was it evidence collected in Australia?

[00:04:33]>> As you can appreciate, these matters will be before court. I'm not going to go into specifics about the evidence, except that these are highly complex matters that require a lot of investigation.

[00:04:45]>> Can you confirm if any of the alleged offending happened in Australia?

[00:04:50]>> In this matter, I can confirm that the alleged offending that we are talking about is in relation to the allegation of the female entering Syria between 2013 and 2014.

[00:05:02]>> Did you commit this?

[00:05:04]>> Does the AFP still have operations ongoing over Syria? Is there still an investigation taking place or what is part of these operations?

[00:05:11]>> As I indicated earlier, we're still undertaking investigations in relation to the women that have returned.

[00:05:19]And we will work with our global law enforcement partners if there is evidence for us to obtain.

[00:05:25]>> Can we expect more charges to be laid against others of these women?

[00:05:29]>> I'm not going to speculate on whether more charges will be laid except that we are investigating, and if there is evidence, then further charges will be laid.

[00:05:38]>> Do those investigations include interviewing the women about the other women?

[00:05:42]>> I'm not going to go into operational strategies in relation to it, but I won't rule out that that is a part of our investigative process.

[00:05:51]>> What was the woman in question associating with any of the women who recently returned?

[00:05:57]>> I'm not going to go into the specific details for operational reasons.

[00:06:00]>> Should Australians be concerned about the women who recently returned?

[00:06:04]>> The AFP works with our partners across the joint counterterrorism teams, and our priority is keeping the community safe, and we are still investigating these matters.

[00:06:13]>> Of all the women who returned, are there any who you the AFP have declared or decided were coerced or tricked and not under investigation, or is every single woman who has come back under active investigation?

[00:06:25]>> I'm not going to go into the details in relation to that, but as I've indicated in my statement, the women who have returned are under investigation.

[00:06:34]>> Are there any women that have returned in any cohort that are no longer subject to investigation?

[00:06:39]>> The The current We Sorry, who Who do you mean?

[00:06:43]>> women who have returned, are there any that are no longer subject to investigation?

[00:06:47]>> All the women that have returned recently are under investigation.

[00:06:51]>> Where are the women located? What's the split between the states, and are any of them of the cohorts placed in regional Australia?

[00:06:57]>> As you can appreciate, for privacy reasons, I won't be discussing where the women are actually located, um but suffice to say that we're working with our partners across all those investigations.

[00:07:09]>> Is the AFP aware of all of the location of all of them?

[00:07:13]>> The AFP, with our partners, are aware of the location of these women.

[00:07:17]>> What was the preceding terrorism [snorts] related charges that enabled one woman, Mariam Raad, to be to have a TEO imposed on her?

[00:07:29]>> I'm not here to talk about TEOs, um that's a matter for for Home Affairs, um but I can assure you that the women are under investigation.

[00:07:39]>> That woman who has been knocked back at the airport and ordered to leave. Has she tried again at another airport in Syria or even tried to get to another country to return to Australia?

[00:07:51]>> I'm not going to discuss that here.

[00:07:53]>> And is the AFP aware of any legal action that's being taken out by her family in Australia?

[00:08:00]>> I'm not going to discuss those matters.

[00:08:01]>> Last question.

[00:08:04]>> [snorts] >> Uh it's not appropriate to discuss that.

[00:08:10]Thank you.