Teen bride Alo-Bridget Namoa charged over alleged Sydney terror plot
THE teenage bride of an alleged terrorist is expected to fight terror charges levelled against her after allegations she had a knife wrapped in a jihadi flag.
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THE WIFE of a terror suspect has been charged over an alleged plot to commit a terrorist attack with her husband Sameh Bayda.
Eighteen-year-old Alo-Bridget Namoa, of Auburn, was arrested at a relative’s home in Guildford about 10.30am by a team of counter-terrorism police.
She was charged this afternoon with recklessly possessing an item connected to a terrorist act and recklessly collecting documents connected to a terrorist act.
“The woman was previously the subject of a Firearm Prohibition Order served on Wednesday, 13 January 2016, at which time a number of items were seized,” a police statement read.
Ms Namoa’s lawyer Sophie Toomey said her client was arrested at her aunt’s house about 10.30am today and taken to Merrylands police station.
“She is not participating in a recorded interview,” Ms Toomey said.
Namoa, who was wearing a niqab, was brought into Fairfield Local Court by police just before 4pm.
However she arrived too late to be brought before a magistrate so she is expected to be held overnight in the cells at Fairfield police station.
She will appear before the same court tomorrow where her lawyer is likely to ask for the case to be adjourned to Central Local Court on Thursday for a possible bail application.
She said Ms Namoa will apply for bail at a later stage but there could be “some difficulties” because they are expected to be “very serious charges.”
Ms Toomey said her client’s family were shocked by her sudden arrest this morning.
“Her family are absolutely devastated, they are shocked at the way things transpired,” she said. ”They were helping her in every way they could to comply with her bail and there is no suggestion she was not complying with bail.”
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn has told reporters Ms Namoa allegedly was found in possession of a knife believed to be in relation to a terror attack she is accused of planning with her husband.
“We will be alleging that the item that she had possession of was a knife and we will be alleging that the documents that we collected were related to that act also,” Ms Burn said.
Ms Burn said today’s arrest did not relate to any “new specific threat” but rather the ongoing investigations of counter terrorism police.
“When we get evidence we will act on it,” she said.
Ms Burn refused to comment on whether she was disappointed the young western Sydney woman was released on bail, despite police opposing the decision at Ms Namoa’s last court date.
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Less three weeks ago Ms Namoa, from Guildford in Sydney’s west, was charged with 31 counts of refusing to answer questions at the NSW Crime Commission about her suspected sympathies with Islamic State and the alleged plans of her husband 18-year-old Sameh Bayda to commit a terrorist act.
The teenage Muslim convert who allegedly wanted to be a “jihadi Bonnie and Clyde” with her husband was granted bail and ordered to live at her Catholic mother’s house under virtual house arrest.
She was also barred from accessing the internet or telephone.
Ms Namoa, who went to school at John Berne Catholic School at Lewisham, shocked her classmates when she converted to Islam in Year 8.
She later reverted to Christianity before swearing to Allah when she was in Year 10.
Raised by nine brothers, Ms Namo married Bayda in December last year.