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The Australian police have charged a 34-year-old woman allegedly linked to the Islamic State group (IS) with membership of a terrorist organisation and entering a designated conflict zone.
A joint counter-terrorism police team said it will argue in court that the woman travelled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 with a man in order to join IS.
Authorities allege she remained in the region during the group’s rise and was later detained by Kurdish forces in 2019.
She was reportedly held at the al-Hawl Internally Displaced Persons camp until she returned to Australia in September last year.
Police confirmed she will appear in court on Thursday.
Her arrest follows a series of recent returns of Australians linked to suspected IS fighters. Earlier this month, two women—a mother and daughter—were detained upon arrival in Melbourne and accused of enslaving a woman after travelling to Syria in 2014 to support IS. Both had also been held by Kurdish authorities since 2019.
In a separate case, another woman was arrested on arrival in Sydney and charged with entering a restricted area and joining a terrorist organisation.
This week, 13 additional Australians, including four women and nine children linked to IS-affiliated families, returned from Syria. Federal police said none of the group was charged on arrival, but stressed that investigations remain ongoing.
“It is important to note that a period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased,” said Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec. She added that inquiries into all adult female returnees from Syrian camps are continuing.
