ISIS bride Zehra Duman could return to Australia as government scrambles to close legal loophole

Major flaws in our national security laws could mean that more than a dozen accused Islamic State terrorists could apply for their Australian citizenship back.

It comes four months after Australia’s Supreme Court ruled that the cessation of citizenship laws were invalid because they were based on a ministerial decree, not a court order.

Government lawyers on Monday informed the legal team of ISIS jihadist bride Zehra Duman that they would no longer appeal the coalition government’s decision to strip her of her citizenship.

In late 2014, aged 19, Duman went to Syria and became Australia’s most notorious jihadist bride after marrying three ISIS fighters, including fellow Melbourne extremist Mahmoud Abdullatif, known as the “playboy jihadi.”

In 2014, Duman left Melbourne at the age of 19 and joined ISIS in Syria. She lives with her two children in a refugee camp in Turkey and desperately wants to return to Australia. Pictured: The woman thought she was Duman (center) next to emergency workers

Since the Supreme Court ruling, the Albanian government has been pursuing a legislative solution to the citizenship problem.

In June, the court overturned the former government’s decision to strip Australian-Turkish dual citizen Delil Alexander of his Australian citizenship while he was being held in Syria.

The ruling, which involved Alexander and another person, set a precedent and had immediate consequences for about 20 Australians who have had their citizenship revoked due to alleged links to terrorism.

The government will introduce its own citizenship termination laws that would give a court rather than a minister the power to decide whether a person involved in terrorist activities should lose their citizenship.

It is believed that the laws will apply to people who commit terrorist offenses both abroad and on Australian soil.

It comes as the threats Dunam has made on social media resurface, where she sparked despicable ISIS propaganda and directly threatened Australia and the family of a Daily Mail Australia reporter.

Duman used social media to spread a series of propaganda images promoting ISIS (pictured)

In 2015, a Twitter account believed to be operated by Duman posted photos of ISIS women brandishing machine guns and standing next to a BMW car, dressed head-to-toe in Islamic clothing, with the caption “5 Star Jihad.” ‘.

In one tweet, Duman said: ‘US + Australia, how does it feel that all five of us were born and raised in your countries, and now here thirsty for your (sic) blood?’

At the time, Duman told the Daily Mail Australia: “All you need to know is that the next time I ever step into Australia is when we come and make it part of the Islamic State of bi’thnillah (by Allah’s permission).

‘Oh and do I miss my family? Well, I think you’ll be missing yours soon (sic). Thanks and have a nice day friend!’

Duman was detained in the Kurdish region of Syria following the collapse of the Islamic State in March 2019, with her Australian citizenship revoked later that year.

With the help of people smugglers, she escaped from the al-Hol detention camp and fled with her son Jarred and daughter Layla to Turkey, where she was convicted in 2020 of membership of a terrorist group.

Her family in Melbourne has long campaigned for her return, saying she was “brainwashed”, with Duman begging to return home and that her children in Australia would be treated like “normal children”.

The Australian extremist sent this threatening message to a Daily Mail Australia journalist on January 22, 2015 (pictured)

In one of her tweets, Duman boasted about her and American jihadist brides thirsting for Australian and American blood (pictured)

Albanian government wants to introduce citizenship cessation laws that would empower a court to decide whether a person involved in terrorist activities should be deprived of citizenship (photo, Zehra’s propaganda showing Islamic State women next to a BMW)