Zainab Abdirahman-Khalif trial: Nursing student told friends she was ‘caught red-handed’ with IS propaganda, prosecutor says
A NURSING student who allegedly joined the IS terror group told a friend that authorities had “caught me red-handed” with jihadist propaganda but then insisted, to police, accusations of her membership were “rubbish”, a court has heard.
- EMPANELLING: Expect ‘graphic, gruesome’ footage, jurors told
- DAY ONE: ‘$170 and a one-way ticket to Turkey’
A NURSING student who allegedly joined the IS terror group told a friend that authorities had “caught me red-handed” with jihadist propaganda but then insisted, to police, accusations of her membership were “rubbish”, a court has heard.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard Zainab Abdirahman-Khalif texted another person saying it was her “destiny” to be in Adelaide because there were few other “Muwahideen” — or followers of IS’ ideals — in the state, “just me”.
Abdirahman-Khalif, 23, of Mansfield Park, has pleaded not guilty to intentionally being a member of IS, knowing it to be a terrorist organisation, between July 2016 and May 2017.
On Monday, prosecutor Chris Winneke QC said Abdirahman-Khalif had attempted to leave Australia in July 2016 — without telling her family, carrying only hand luggage and just $170 — to travel to IS-controlled regions of Syria and Iraq via Turkey.
He also alleged her membership could be proven through material seized from her phone, which included footage of executions and suicide bombings.
He said it could also be proven by her singing of “nasheeds” — or songs praising IS’ goals — her use of its “Telegraph” messenger app and her swearing of loyalty to the group.
Continuing his opening address on Tuesday, Mr Winneke said much of that evidence had been gathered by audio recordings.
“In September 2016, a couple of days after a search warrant was executed, she was recorded in a one-sided conversation about what had occurred,” he said.
“She said ‘you know, when they knocked on the front door, I had deleted the Telegram messenger … God loves me, praise is to be to God’,” he said.
“She was recorded in conversation with another person talking about the seizure of materials from her house, deleting Telegram ‘instantly’, deleting her photos and videos, sending material to others before deleting it.
“She said ‘the men caught me red-handed’.”
“She said ‘the men caught me red-handed’.”
Abdirahman-Khalif is further alleged to have been in contact with a three-woman IS cell that carried out, and died during, a knife and petrol bomb attack on a police station in Mombasa, Kenya.
Mr Winneke said she had been recorded praising one of those women as being “wise” and “helping her hide passports and such in the house” by “giving her ideas”.
He said that, in February 2017, Abdirahman-Khalif willingly attended an interview with Australian Federal Police.
“She said it was rubbish that she was a member of IS, and that there was no reason she had her citizenship certificate with her when she attempted to travel,” he said.
“She said she was the only person who used her phone … she was asked about the nasheeds, she said they were from the (Telegram) channels.
“She said she did not know how images of beheadings and things like that had got onto her phone.”
Mr Winneke said the term “Muwahideen” was used, by members of IS, to refer to themselves.
“On February 18, 2017, the defendant was sending a text to another person,” he said.
“In that discussion, concerning her being in Adelaide, she wrote ‘it was my destiny to be here, sis’, followed by a sad smiley face (emoji).
“She wrote ‘there’s not a lot of Muwahideen, just me.”
Jurors were played recordings of Abdirahman-Khalif’s interview with Australian Federal Police and Border Force officers at Adelaide Airport on July 14, 2016.
Asked why she was trying to travel to Turkey, she said she wanted “to see what life is like there” and join “aid workers”.
“I just want to help the refugees... they (my family) wouldn’t want me to help... the whole thing was I want to be part of aid work,” she said.
She said she intended to stay a week while finding an aid work job, then stay for “one or two months” while they took care of her accomodation and financial needs.
“They will help me... when you work with someone, they will provide you everything - that’s how relief organisations work, I know that’s how they work,” she said.
Abdirahman-Khalif told the officers she had paid for her one-way ticket with her savings and leftover money from her student support payments, and that there was no particular reason for her departure date.
“I wanted to go yesterday... there was nothing specific about it, I just chose it,” she said.
She conceded she knew “no one” in Istanbul, claimed she did not know anyone in Syria or Iraq and said she “did not follow” events in the Middle East.
“I just know these guys are killing these people, in the Syria war,” she said.
Told the AFP has made contact with her family, Abdirahman-Khalif asked: “Do they want to speak to me? It’s going to be a shock to them.”
She then said she wanted the interview to end.
“I think that’s all I can say, there’s nothing else I can say,” she said.
The trial, before Justice David Peek and a jury, continues.