Suppression lifted: Laura Allam faces kidnap, assault charges

One of the movement’s highest profile campaigners, Laura Allam, can now be identified as the activist facing abduction and assault charges in Melbourne.

Laura Allam who has been charged with kidnap and assault related offences.

Abduction and assault charges have been laid against one of the anti-Israel lobby’s highest profile campaigners in Australia.

Magistrate Carolyn Howe on Tuesday lifted a suppression order affecting Laura Allam, who has had a national profile fighting for the Palestinian cause.

She is facing charges over alleged kidnapping, false imprisonment, common law assault, unlawful assault by kicking and unlawful assault.

Ms Allam, 27, is one of the highest profile pro-Palestinian campaigners in Melbourne, headlining events, including a rally outside Parliament House in Canberra in February.

Another activist, Mohammad Sharab, 37, has been charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, threats to kill, intentionally causing injury and unlawful assault in relation to the same incident in Melbourne’s west.

The Australian revealed last week that a third person, 25, also had been charged but that person’s identity remains suppressed. He was charged with a range of offences, including kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery and assault-related offences.

Police said in a previous statement that it was alleged a man was pulled from a car near an intersection in Melbourne’s west about 9.30pm on February 16. He was then allegedly placed in another car and assaulted and robbed before being released west of Melbourne’s CBD.

Police said at the time that the 31-year-old St Albans victim went to hospital with minor injuries.

Mohammad Sharab has also been charged.

Ms Allam and Mr Sharab are expected to face Melbourne Magistrates Court on May 31.

Ms Allam headlined a Palestine to Parliament rally a month ago alongside some Greens MPs and others. She also has been high profile in the pro-Palestinian campaign scene in Melbourne, praising  left-wing writer Clementine Ford’s position on the Middle-East war. Ford has since distanced herself from Ms Allam, reportedly downplaying the extent of the ­relationship.

Ms Allam recently posted on Instagram re Ford: “Love the girl.”

Ford responded: “I love YOU.’’

Ms Allam wrote on Facebook in 2020 that she had set up a charity to help deal with poverty in the Middle-East.

“In September 2020, I established … Al Jannah Foundation. AJF is a not-for-profit humanitarian relief organisation hoping to eradicate poverty and alleviate human suffering in the Middle East affected by poverty, disasters and emergency situ­ations,’’ she wrote. “I will continue to serve the community with integrity, love and utmost respect. Having everything made me realise how it feels to have nothing.”

The foundation’s mission is to “serve those in need irrespective of race, religion, social background or political con­sider­ations”. Its website names several campaigns but none has received donations or the site has not been updated. The campaigns include providing Lebanese people with food and sponsoring orphans.

The Australian was among a large number of media outlets to oppose the suppression of the identities of the two people.

Ms Howe had recently issued a suppression order preventing the identification of Ms Allam and Mr Sharab but that was lifted on ­Tuesday, with her saying there was “a way for reporting in a positive manner” and a way to report negatively as she defended restrictions upheld in adjusted suppression orders.

She said she wished to keep some details “closely guarded” and media reporting on the matter “has to be fair and … accurate.”