A mother and daughter accused of keeping a woman as a slave in Syria have abandoned their bid to be released on bail.
Kawsar Ahmad, 54, and Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon, four days after the pair were arrested when they landed at Melbourne airport last week.
The two Australian women have been charged with slavery offences after a Yazidi woman was allegedly used as a slave in the family’s home in the Deir ez-Zur province of Syria in 2017 and 2018.
Last Friday, the court was told lawyers acting for the two women were preparing applications for them to be released on bail.
However, in court on Monday, Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan said she had received notice they would no longer be seeking bail, with both asking the court to find suitable dates for bail applications next month.
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Following a short adjournment, Justice Hannan said Zeinab Ahmad’s bail application would now be listed for June 5 and Kawsar Ahmad’s for June 16.
The pair returned to Australia on Thursday evening and were among a cohort of four women and nine children who had left a refugee camp for the family members of alleged ISIS fighters in northern Syria.
According to the Australian Federal Police, its alleged the women travelled to Syria in 2014 and they had been detained by Kurdish forces at the Al Roj camp since March 2019.
It’s alleged Kawsar Ahmad was “complicit” in the purchase of a female slave for $US10,000 in about June 2017, with the two women alleged to have exercised control over the woman in conditions akin to slavery until about November 2018.
Kawsar Ahmad, also known as Kawsar Abbas, has been charged with four crimes against humanity offences of enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading.
Zeinab Ahmad, also known as Zeinab Ahmed, is charged with two offences of enslavement and using a slave.
According to charge sheets released by the court, warrants for the pair’s arrest were issued on February 17 with the AFP citing that they were “returning from extended period overseas”.
The charges allege both women “intentionally exercised any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership (of the woman)… in circumstances where the conduct was committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systemic attack against a civilian population”.
Australian law prevents the media from naming the woman who was allegedly the victim of the slavery offences and the court has imposed an interim suppression order barring the identification of a second woman, who is expected to be called as a witness in the case.
It’s alleged this woman was also an victim of slavery-related offences, unrelated to the charges against Kawsar Ahmad and Zeinab Ahmad, but will give evidence “including interactions with the two accused”.
On Monday, prosecutors flagged they would apply for her to be designated under law a “special witness” which would also bar the media from reporting her name or anything that could identify her.
A hearing on the matter is expected to occur in court on Tuesday.
