A mother and daughter accused of being ISIS brides abandoned their bid for bail on Monday and will remain in jail facing charges of crimes against humanity and slavery.
Grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, were expected to apply for bail in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after they were remanded in custody at a hearing on Friday.
The pair will now remain behind bars until next month when they are expected to make a fresh bid for freedom.
Abbas is being represented by Melbourne barrister Peter Morrissey, SC, who represented Bali 9 members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran during their appeals in Indonesia.
Ahmad’s bid for freedom is being handled by Grace Morgan, who is expected to run the first bail application.
The pair were among a group of women and children who returned to Australia amid chaotic airport scenes on Thursday after years of living in a Syrian refugee camp.
Detectives allege Abbas travelled to the region with her husband and children in 2014.
They allege she was complicit in buying a female slave for US$10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in her home.

+4
View gallery
Zeinab Ahmad, 31, (pictured) was expected to apply for bail in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after they were remanded in custody at a hearing on Friday

+4
View gallery
Detectives allege grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 53, travelled to the region with her husband and children in 2014 (She is pictured on Monday ahead of their abandoned bail application hearing)

+4
View gallery
Kawsar Abbas and Zeinab Ahmad will apply for bail on slavery charges
She has been charged with enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and slave trading. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in jail if convicted.
Charge sheets released by the court allege the 53-year-old enslaved, possessed and used the slave in Mayadin, Hajin, Gharanji, Bahra, Abu Hamam, Walaa and other places in the Deir ez-Zor province of Syria between June 2017 and November 2018.
It is alleged Ahmad had also knowingly kept a female slave in her Syrian home, with police charging her with enslavement and using a slave over the same period.
The document stated the pair’s conduct was ‘committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systemic attack directed against a civilian population’.
Police said the pair were detained by Kurdish forces in 2019 and held with other family members in the Al Roj Internally Displaced Persons camp.
They are among three returnees charged following an almost decade-long investigation, which began after the women travelled to the Middle East with their partners, who allegedly intended to fight for Islamic State.
A third woman, 32-year-old Janai Safar, who flew into Sydney, was arrested and charged with entering a prohibited area and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
She was denied bail due to the seriousness of the charges and will return before Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on July 15.

+4
View gallery
The so-called ‘ISIS brides’ flew into Melbourne last week in chaotic scenes
A fourth woman, Zeinab’s sister, Zahra Ahmad, 33, returned with the group but was released without charge
The first bail application has been scheduled for June 16 before Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan.
News
PUBLIC MONEY, PRIVATE ANGER: IAN HUNTLEY CREMATION IN £265 ECO C0FFIN REIGNITES NATIONAL OUTRAGE OVER TAXPAYER-FUNDED PRIS0N FUNERALS
The Soham killer Ian Huntley was cremated in a £265 eco-friendly coffin at a service attended by no mourners and paid for…
LATEST TWIST IN SYDNEY NETBALL INCIDENT CASE SPARKS FRESH DEBATE AS WOMAN FACES CHARGES OVER ALLEG-ED SLUR
In short: A woman, 42, has been charged after an alleged antisemitic incident on Saturday during a girls netball game…
HE WAS JUST GOING HOME…: FAMILY COLLAPSES AFTER 12-YEAR-OLD FOOTBALL STAR CAUGHT IN TERRIF-YING TRAIN TRAGEDY
A soccer academy has rallied around a schoolboy who was critically injured when his backpack became caught between carriages and he was…
“WE WARNED THIS COULD HAPPEN”: SCHOOL COMMUNITY IN SH0CK AFTER H0RRIFYING TRAIN INCIDENT LEAVES STUDENT INJURED
A rising soccer star has been identified as the young private schoolboy who was dragged under a train by his…
SHE JUST VANISHED: DESPERATE SEARCH FOR TRISHA GRAF REACHES DEVASTATING MILESTONE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The family of missing South Australian mother Trisha Graf say they now believe she has been murdered as a fresh outback search…
IT’S NOT OVER YET: KAREN WEBB RETURNS FOR HIGH-STAKES KUMANJAYI LITTLE BABY INVESTIGATION — AND INSIDERS FEAR WHAT COULD BE UNCOVERED
Former NSW police commissioner Karen Webb will co-lead an independent investigation into the conduct of the Northern Territory government in relation to…
End of content
No more pages to load






