ISIS bride’s bid for freedom is DENIED as she is locked up after judge denies bail – just hours after arriving in Australia

A recently returned ‘ISIS bride’ will remain behind bars in a Sydney jail after failing to convince a judge she should be reunited with her nine-year-old son.

Janai Safar was among four women linked to ISIS fighters who touched down in Australia on Thursday night, almost two weeks after leaving the Al-Roj detention camp in north-eastern Syria.

Safar and her son were escorted off the plane by Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers shortly after landing at Sydney Airport.

She was later charged by the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team with entering and remaining in a declared conflict zone and being a member of a terrorist organisation.

Each offence carries a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment.

Safar wore a white hijab and green tracksuit when she appeared on Friday afternoon in online bail court where Judge Daniel Covington denied her release application.

Barrister Michael Ainsworth had sought Safar’s release by attempting to make a case that her situation represented the required ‘exceptional circumstances’.

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Recently returned ‘ISIS bride’ Janai Safar (above) will remain behind bars in a Sydney jail after a judge found there were not ‘exceptional circumstances’ to release her

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Janai Safar (above), was charged with entering or remaining in declared areas, and being a member of a terrorist organisation

Mr Ainsworth said Safar was 21 when she went to Syria and there were questions about her degree of involvement in Islamic State.

She might have been coerced to take part or was in fear of others who were more deeply involved in the terrorist organisation.

Mr Ainsworth also said Safar would not be able to help her son reintegrate into Australian society if she remained in jail.

‘She’s the only family he knows,’ Mr Ainsworth said, ‘having spent his entire life in a refugee camp under guard.’

‘This lady and her son have lived in truly horrific conditions in these refugee camps for many years and are plainly likely to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological conditions.’

Mr Ainsworth said the poor sanitary conditions and lack of proper nourishment in refugee camps had exacerbated Safar’s existing medical conditions.

‘She’s been in a situation that is in itself custodial in another country,’ he told Judge Covington.

Mr Ainsworth said Safar’s alleged offending effectively ended in early 2017 when she left Razza in northern Syria and was detained a series of refugee camps.

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Grandmother Kawsar Abbas appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning charged with four crimes against humanity and was remanded in custody. She is pictured in a court sketch

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Zeinab Ahmed also faced Melbourne Magistrates Court Zeinab on two slavery charges and was remanded in custody. She is pictured in a court sketch

From that time, Safar could not be considered a participant in any conflict, Mr Ainsworth told the court.

Brian Massone, for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, said the nature and seriousness of the charges Safar faced outweighed any of her personal circumstances.

He accepted Safar had been living in ‘quite horrible’ conditions and did not contest the significance of the bond between mother and child.

However, Mr Massone said Safar had left Australia in a ‘premeditated and considered fashion’ to join an organisation which spread ‘misery, destruction and discord through the world’.

‘That organisation being, of course, the so-called Islamic State,’ Mr Massone told the court.

Mr Massone said Safar had not only gone to a territory controlled by Islamic State but had chosen remain there and intended to join ISIS.

‘She was taking steps towards membership or was in fact a member,’ he said.

Mr Massone said the Crown against Safar was ‘very strong’ and would rely on messages she sent to her mother to show she intended joining ISIS.

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Janai Safar (above) previously vowed never to return to Australia where she says there are ‘naked women on the street’. She could face ten years in jail

Judge Covington found after considering the Crown and defence submissions there were not exceptional circumstances to grant Safar’s release application.

Police will allege Safar travelled to Syria in 2015 to join her husband, who had previously left Australia to join ISIS.

She returned home for the sake of her son and to finish her nursing degree, according to documents obtained by Nine newspapers.

Safar stated her son was her highest priority and that she had returned to Australia to ensure he received an education and integrated into society.

She has extensive problems with her kidneys, suffers from stomach and urinary issues and had been experiencing anxiety.

Safar was a nursing student in Sydney when she left the country in 2015, supposedly to visit family in Lebanon, before travelling to Turkey.

It is not known how Safar ended up in Syria, where she married an Australian man who had gone to the Middle East to fight for Islamic State. He died in a motor vehicle accident in 2018.

Safar claims she was under constant surveillance of handlers while living in Islamic State territory, that she could never speak freely and felt ‘vulnerable and alone’ at the time.

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The 32-year-old (right) was whisked from the airport to Mascot Police Station after landing in Sydney from Syria

That marks a stark contrast to remarks Safar made in 2019, when she said she did not regret living under Islamic State and had no plans to return home.

Safar also vowed to raise her son in a non-Islamist country, amid fears he could be taken away from her if she ever came back to Australia.

‘It was my decision to come here to go away from where women are naked on the street,’ she told The Australian in 2019.

‘I don’t want my son to be raised around that.

‘I don’t regret coming to Syria. I don’t regret living under Islamic State.’

Safar was taken to Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre in Sydney’s west, while her son is staying with his grandfather.

Grandmother Kawsar Abbas, 54, along with her daughters Zahra Ahmad, 33 and Zeinab Ahmed, 31 and eight children arrived in Melbourne on Thursday night.

They were held in customs for hours before Abbas and Zeinab were arrested by AFP officers and charged on Friday morning.

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Men shield Zahra Ahmad from the media as she leaves Melbourne Airport on Thursday night

Abbas was charged with four crimes against humanity – slavery charges, including keeping and using a slave, and engaging in slave trade.

These offences carry a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment.

Police will allege Abbas travelled to Syria in 2014 with her husband and children, and was complicit in the purchase of a female slave for US$10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in her home.

Zeinab faces two slavery charges. Both offences carry a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment. She allegedly travelled to Syria in 2014 with her family and knowingly kept a female slave in the home.

Zahra Ahmad was allowed to walk free and was shielded from the media by a large group of men dressed in black as she left Melbourne Airport on a shuttle bus.

Zeinab and Abbas faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday morning when they were remanded in custody until Monday when both will make bail applications.

The AFP said investigations into the group were ongoing.

‘This remains an active investigation into very serious allegations,’ Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt told reporters in Canberra on Thursday night.

It is understood 21 Australians remain in the Al-Roj camp.

Safar is next due to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on July 15.