ISIS bride acted like ‘deputy’ to abusive father after family bought teen slave, police claim

A Melbourne family accused of buying a teen slave captured by Islamic State for $10,000 knew she was being purchased for sex and housework in a home where guns and terror flags were put on display, police say.

ISIS bride Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, a month after returning to Australia for the first time in more than a decade, after travelling to Syria with family, including mother Kawsar Abbas, 54, and father Mohammed Ahmad.

Police allege that while in Islamic State territory, Ahmad and her mother knowingly used a slave for more than a year, from June 2017 to November 2018, as part of the terrorist group’s widespread, systematic attack on the Yazidi people.

In opposing a bail application by Zeinab Ahmad, Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning said he held serious concerns for the safety and welfare of the community if she was released after living in Syria since 2014, where she was subject to Islamic law and entered into marriages with multiple men.

He said the whereabouts of her current husband, an Egyptian-born man, was unknown and her father was thought to be alive and living in Iraq.

“She’s never explicitly renounced or said she no longer supports IS since her surrender to the Kurdish forces,” Clendenning told the court.

“She was employed by Islamic State, earning a regular salary. She possessed an Islamic State ID card.

“There are no bail conditions that will sufficiently ameliorate the risk and bail should not be granted.”

The court heard at age 15, the complainant was taken captive and sold and traded as a sex slave among 17 different IS members.

In 2017, she said she was bought by the Ahmad family for about $US10,000 ($14,000) after being inspected for marriage.

The accused woman’s father told the girl he had bought her for “the purpose of raping” and housework. She then slept in the same bedroom as Zeinab Ahmad and went on to be abused by the man multiple times.

The complainant said the father wore military clothes and went to fight battles with other Australians.

During the physical and sexual attacks on her, she said the rest of his family were present in the house as she called for help and tried to fight him off.

She said the accused woman – aged 22 and 23 at the time – used a different name and had a Glock pistol, treated her very badly and ordered her to do things for her around the house like she was the “deputy”.

The police informant said the Ahmad family appeared to have IS privileges not afforded to others.

Clendenning said that in 2013, Islamic State militants began to ta