Australian ISIS brides in Syria launch legal fight against the government

About 20 Australian women and children stranded in Syria will launch a landmark legal challenge against the federal government, claiming they “broke promises” about bringing them home.

The families of the remaining ISIS brides stuck in Syria are preparing to launch a landmark legal challenge to force the federal government to bring them home to Australia.

Government sources told The Saturday Telegraph there were no imminent plans to bring the 40 or so women and children home almost seven months since the first batch returned to Sydney in October.

A team of lawyers acting on behalf of 20 of the children and their mothers are now drawing up plans for an Australian-first case that could be lodged in the Supreme Court.

The case will argue that the women are effectively being detained by the Australian government and requests they be brought before a court down under.

If successful, it would require the women to be returned home by the government for a court to determine whether they were being legally “detained”.

Australian women Mariam Dabboussy, Aminah Assaad, Nesrine Zahab, Shayma Assaad and Bessima Assaad with their children at the at al-Roj camp in northeastern Syria. Picture: The Australian

The same legal mechanism has been used by groups in America and India in a bid to return citizens to their home countries after being detained in ISIS-controlled territory.

It has also been considered several times in recent years by the families of the women before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced last year the first group were being repatriated.

Sydney mum Mariam Dabboussy with her husband Kaled Zahab. She was one of four women returned to Australia last year after spending years in ISIS territory.

“Save the Children has been instructed to act as litigation guardian for a group of innocent Australian children and their mothers who are seeking repatriation from camps in North East Syria,” Save The Children CEO Mat Tinkler said.

“We have assembled a high-calibre legal team to prepare an application for a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of these Australians, who have now been trapped in the camps for more than four years.

“Save the Children has been encouraging the Australian Government at every available opportunity to bring home the remaining Australians, and working to avoid the prospect of legal action.

“However, the families have become increasingly desperate, as the risks to their children’s health and safety grow with every day that passes. While litigation is a last resort, continued government inaction means the filing of the case is now imminent.

Save The Children’s Mat Tinkler. Picture: AAP

“Humanitarian, international legal and national security experts agree that the best course for the government is to urgently repatriate the Australian women and children from these camps. All those involved in the legal action are prepared to see it through to bring them home.”

The Telegraph understands Amnesty International’s secretary-general Agnes Callamard flew from London to Australia a fortnight ago for meetings with the government on the issue.

It comes as intelligence sources initially reiterated the government’s commitment to bringing them home, suggesting the reason for the delay was due to recent snow in the area.

The forecast at the Al-Roj camp the women and children have called home for the past few years was 32c and sunny on Friday.

ISIS bride Mariam Raad fronting Young Local Court in January, three months after the government repatriated her from a Syrian refugee camp. Picture: NCA NewsWire

“There is a sense of a broken promise within the families,” a relative of one of the returned Sydney women said.

“They (the government) have been indicating they want to bring them back but without providing any kind of timeline because now ‘is not a good time’.

Mariam Raad and husband Muhammad Zahab. Picture: Four Corners

“It is the best time, the budget is coming up and the Opposition is in disarray. Now is a perfect time to bring them home.

“There is now a sense of a broken promise from the women in Syria too.”

A source with intimate knowledge of the case said they hoped Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil would follow through on the commitment but “ran out of patience after working with the government in good faith”.

A spokesman for Ms O’Neil declined to comment.

Negotiations with the government, one source said, had broken down after claiming they “ran out of patience” with Ms O’Neil. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Of the 40 women and children still in displaced persons camp several have had their passports cancelled by the previous government while their children remain legitimate Australian citizens.

Among them is Nesrine Zahab who in 2019 said she arrived into Syria and was forced to marry Sydney-born Islamic State fighter Ahmed Merhi.

Her extremist cousin Muhammad Zahab is believed to be behind luring the majority of the women into the war-zone through a network he set up there after leaving Australia.

Shayma Assaad, her mother Bessima Assaad, Mariam Dabboussy and Mariam Raad arrived back home in October last year with their 13 children to a national uproar.

One of the brides, Mariam Raad, was charged in January with willingly entering the Islamic State-controlled areas of Syria.

She is currently on strict conditional bail in the country town of Young where she is prohibited from contacting jail inmates, terror group members and is banned from possessing videos of executions of people or animals and suicide attacks.

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