Returned ISIS wife Mariam Raad sentenced over charges of entering terrorist-controlled region
So-called ISIS bride Mariam Raad walks into Goulburn Local Court on Wednesday for sentencing. (ABC Riverina: Conor Burke)
A woman charged with willingly entering Syria to be with her Islamic State fighter husband has avoided jail time.
So-called ISIS bride Mariam Raad, 32, was arrested in January 2023, and charged with entering a region controlled by a terrorist organisation.
Last month, she pleaded guilty to the charge and on Wednesday was discharged conditionally at Goulburn Local Court.
Raad received no conviction and was discharged conditionally, meaning she needs to display good behaviour for the next 25 months.
She also has to continue seeing a psychologist and engage in reintegration support programs.
Raad travelled to Islamic State-controlled Syria in 2014 to be with her husband, Muhammad Zahab, who is believed to have been a high-ranking member of the terrorist organisation.
It is believed Zahab was killed in 2018.
Raad, from Young in the New South Wales Riverina, appeared before the court on Wednesday dressed in a pink headscarf as Magistrate Geraldine Beattie sentenced her.
Mariam Raad in al-Hawl refugee camp. (Four Corners)
She is one of four women and 13 children who arrived in Sydney from the Syrian Roj camp in October 2022.
The women were all married to ISIS fighters who are now dead or in jail.
Speaking to the ABC from a Syrian camp in 2021, Raad said she was forced to travel to Syria and denied she knew of her husband's activities.
"I didn't know my husband was a senior in the Islamic State, and I didn't even know anything about my husband's work," she said.
Raad was sentenced at Goulburn Local Court. (ABC Riverina: Conor Burke)
Coercive relationship with husband
During closing arguments, Raad's lawyer Rose Khalilizadeh told the court that at the time of the offending Raad was a "vulnerable woman in a relationship of coercive control" who was "conditioned to not question her husband's decision making".
She said Raad had married her husband when she was 18 and studying at school, "just as she emerged from childhood".
Ms Khalilizadeh agreed that Raad chose to remain in Syria, but said she was isolated in a foreign country with young children.
She said that it could not be proven that she "independently wanted or desired to remain in Syria".
Crown prosecutor Sam Duggan disputed Raad's version of how much knowledge she had of her husband's activities.
He said Raad sent text messages to family members while in Syria, declaring she would "never leave" and that she "cannot leave the land of the caliphate".
Mr Duggan said these messages, alongside her two attempts at entering Syria, showed that Raad held views favourable to ISIS.
Mariam Raad went to Syria with husband and ISIS fighter Muhammad Zahab. (Supplied)
Ms Khalilizadeh said a psychologist's report found Raad was "likely experiencing … symptoms of complex PTSD" during the time of her offending, altering her ability to make decisions.
She said Raad's time in a Syrian displacement camp exposed her to "degrading and inhumane conditions", meaning she had been "essentially incarcerated for years", which Mr Duggan did not dispute.
In sentencing, Magistrate Beattie accepted "the level of control and influence her husband had over her".
She said Raad was alone in Syria, "a female person in a war zone" which "raises the question: if she wanted to leave, could she have left?".
She said Raad had "very good prospects of rehabilitation" and "has demonstrated her contrition".
Investigations ongoing
Raad was charged after a joint investigation between NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police that began when she entered Syria in 2014 and continued after her return.
In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police said Raad was one of four people to date charged with entering a declared area.
The spokesperson said two other cases were still before the courts and the fourth had been withdrawn.
The spokesperson said the AFP remained concerned "that individuals who have travelled to a declared area" could pose "a threat to Australia both while overseas and if they return to Australia".
"The Declared Area offence in section 119.2 of the Criminal Code continues to form an important part of a suite of legislative measures designed to combat this threat and is considered where relevant," the spokesperson said.