MELBOURNE — Rayann El Houli applied for release on bail in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after being charged with joining the Islamic State group and related terrorism offenses. She was arrested in Melbourne last week following her return to Australia from Lebanon last year.
El Houli faces charges of joining a terrorist organization and entering and remaining in Raqqa, Syria, between 2013 and 2014, when it served as the stronghold of the Islamic State so-called caliphate. Each charge carries a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years. People charged with terrorism offenses can only be released on bail in exceptional circumstances.
Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan outlined allegations that El Houli traveled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 with the intention of joining Islamic State fighters. Hannan said El Houli expressed radicalized views while in Syria, including support for terrorist acts and acts of martyrdom. She also repeatedly expressed views supporting the killing or serious injury of non-believers, according to Hannan.
Hannan stated that El Houli attempted to indoctrinate her children and invited people living in Australia to go to Syria to follow a life based on Islamic State or other extremist ideology. El Houli left Raqqa in 2019 when the caliphate was defeated, not because her views had changed, Hannan said. The magistrate also said she wanted to hear details of how El Houli escaped from the al-Hol camp for displaced people in eastern Syria and was smuggled into Lebanon.
Defense lawyer Peter Morrissey said expert evidence would be produced in court showing that El Houli’s views had changed. “She renounces ISIS and violent jihad,” Morrissey said. “She wants nothing to do with it: not now directly or indirectly. Not in the future. Not for herself. Not for the people she loves and specifically not for the children.”
The bail application for Rayann El Houli was adjourned to a date that will be set later.