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Australia Charges Three Repatriated Women, Launching First Crimes-Against-Humanity Case

The cases test a strategy of prosecuting returnees at home with support for their children.

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TOPSHOT - Zeinab Ahmad, one of two women linked to alleged Islamic State jihadists, is seen being taken away in an armoured police vehicle outside the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in Melbourne on May 8, 2026, following her court appearance. Two Australian women "kept a female slave" after travelling to Syria in 2014 to support the Islamic State group, police said on May 8 after they were charged in Melbourne. The pair returned to Australia on the evening of May 7 for the first time in almost a decade, travelling from a Syrian detention camp where they were stranded after the group's collapse. (Photo by Martin KEEP / AFP via Getty Images)

Overview

  • Three Australian citizens who returned from Syria were arrested at Sydney and Melbourne airports on Thursday and charged by joint counter-terrorism teams.
  • Kawsar Ahmad, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, face crimes-against-humanity charges for alleged enslavement of Yazidi women, with each offence carrying up to 25 years in prison.
  • Janai Safar, 32, was charged in Sydney with entering a declared conflict zone and membership of ISIS, and she remains in custody after a judge refused bail on Friday.
  • The Melbourne pair plan to seek bail on Monday, while nine returning children, all Australian citizens, are set to receive welfare and deradicalisation support as part of reintegration.
  • Human Rights Watch called these Australia’s first crimes-against-humanity prosecutions and urged fair process, victim support, and trauma-informed care for the returned children.