Australia charges woman with travelling to Syria and joining Islamic State

Thursday, 28 May 2026 09:47

An Australian woman has been charged with traveling to Syria and joining the Islamic State.

The 34-year-old allegedly travelled with others to the war-torn region between 2013 and 2014 to join the extremist group during the height of fighting between government and opposition forces.

A man she was said to have gone with is believed to be in a prison in the Middle East, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) said.

Kurdish forces detained the woman in March 2019, and she was held with family members in the al Hol refugee camp, the AFP said in a statement, also issued with Victoria Police and Australia Security Intelligence Operation

Police added she returned to Australia from Lebanon with another woman, 36, and that investigations into both women were ongoing.

She was arrested in September last year at her Melbourne home, eight months after she returned to Australia via Lebanon with another woman

She was charged with one count of being a member of a terrorist organisation and one count of entering a war zone. Both offences carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The woman was expected to appear at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

Hilda Sirec, AFP deputy commissioner of national security investigations said that "a period of time without charges being laid is not an indicator that investigations have ceased".

"Investigations are continuing into all the recent adult female returnees from Syrian camps," she added.

See more from Sky News:
Britain has almost 1m NEETs
Paramedics attacked in Lebanon

It comes as Australia grapples with the return of women who left the country to join their husbands who were alleged IS members, with some travelling between 2012 and 2016.

After the IS caliphate collapsed in 2019, many were detained in camps such as al Hol, where more than 76,000 people were held at the northeastern Syrian camp at its peak.

The Australian government has been criticised for failing to stop the women from returning. It has said it did not assist their travel and that there are "very serious limits" on preventing citizens from re-entering the country.

A Syrian government official told Sky News in February that al Hol camp is now largely emptied, acknowledging that escapes continued after the state took control of the site.

Sky News