‘Jihadi Bonnie’s’ new breach charges ‘silly and innocuous’
A lawyer for the Jihadi bride involved in a failed New Year’s Eve terror plot in 2015 has derided serious new allegations that her client has breached her strict terror order.
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A Jihadi teen bride’s lawyer has labelled charges against her terrorist client for breaching a strict control order as “silly and innocuous”.
Alo-Bridget Namoa, one half of Sydney’s Jihadi Bonnie and Clyde, appeared by video link at Parramatta Bail Court today wearing a beige hijab and a face mask after being arrested on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, who is at Amber Laurel Correctional Centre, has been charged with 11 alleged breaches of a strict terror control order which was put in place when she was released from prison in December last year after being convicted of plotting to carry out a 2015 New Year’s Eve attack with her ex-beau Sameh Bayda.
Her 21-condition order bans anyone else from using her phone which an Australian Federal Police superintendent has to sign off on.
Police allege in court documents she let someone else use her phone three times and also got someone to access WhatsApp on her behalf twice.
She is also accused of using a phone other than the one authorised by the AFP.
Police allege in court documents she also got someone else to use a phone on her behalf four times over June.
Namoa also allegedly failed to report to Auburn police station on June 19 as she is required to do weekly as part of her strict supervision.
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In court her lawyer Zali Burrows called the charges against her client “silly and innocuous” before asking for the matter to be adjourned until Tuesday.
“Although charges appear to be what I would say silly and innocuous it does require exceptional circumstances,” Ms Burrows said.
“If your honour would defer the matter until Tuesday it would give me Monday to go over the documents.”
Prosecutor senior sergeant Lisa McEvoy later said: “Your honour did you hear Ms Burrows say they were silly and innocuous charges?”
Magistrate Susan Horan then replied: “Yes, that’s what she said.”
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Outside court, Ms Burrows criticised the charges against Namoa, telling The Daily Telegraph they had been laid because “someone has too much time on their hands”.
Namoa did not apply for bail and will remain behind bars until her next appearance on Tuesday.
Namoa and Bayda, who saw themselves as the jihadi Bonnie and Clyde before their split, married in an Islamic ceremony when they were 18 before planning to attack non-Muslims on New Year’s Eve.
Namoa was sentenced to a maximum of three years and nine months but was eligible for parole after two years and 10 months.
Namoa’s high-profile arrest by the AFP’s High Risk Offenders team comes amid concerns the pandemic was creating an environment for extremist recruitment.
The Federal Court granted an interim control order last December, which restricted Namoa’s movements.
She was banned from visiting jails or going near Sydney Airport, Circular Quay and the White Bay cruise terminal. She was placed under a curfew and banned from accessing extremist material, such as information on “beheading, execution, suicide bombing and firearms”.
The order also banned the self-described “baby terrorist” from communicating with Bassam Hamzy after it emerged she sent letters to the notorious gang leader in prison.
In a message to Hamzy in 2016, she asked the Supermax inmate to look out for her then-husband Bayda.
The letters were contained in a collection of documents the AFP presented to the Federal Court to argue its case for the control order.
The Daily Telegraph reported in February that the documents included a letter Namoa sent to Corrective Services boss Peter Severin offering to send beheading images.