A burqa-wearing Muslim woman has been arrested in Melbourne and and charged with allegedly joining Islamic terrorist group ISIS before returning to Australia last year.
Rayann El Houli, 34, was filmed being taken into custody by the Victoria Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) on Thursday after raids at homes in Broadmeadows and Fitzroy North.
Police said that while executing the search warrants they seized a suspected stolen motor vehicle, electronic devices, documents and photographs, which will undergo forensic examination.
Muslim woman in a burqa arrested in Melbourne and charged with joining ISIS.
She flew back to Australia in September last year.
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“It will be alleged the woman travelled to Syria between 2013 and 2014 with others, including a man, to join ISIS. The man is believed to be incarcerated in a Middle East prison,” police said.
“The woman was detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019. She was held with other family members in the al-Hawl Internally Displaced Persons camp. She returned from Lebanon to Australia with another woman, 36, on 26 September, 2025.”
The woman, who lives in Broadmeadows, was charged with one count of entering, or remaining in declared areas, and one count of being a member of a terrorist organisation. Both offences carry a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment.
El Houli will face Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday.
AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec said it was the fourth arrest this month of ISIS-linked women who had returned from Syria, after three wives of Islamic State terrorists were charged on arrival in Sydney and Melbourne.
“These operations are complex, but JCTT investigators are extremely experienced and dedicated to keeping the community safe,’’ she said.
“It is important to note 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.”
Five men have also been charged this month for allegedly possessing and distributing ISIS propaganda after a series of police raids across Melbourne carried out after the first of two groups of ISIS brides arrived from Damascus.
A second group of ISIS-linked families landed in Melbourne and Sydney on Tuesday, but no arrests were made.
Header image: Left, right, the woman being taken into custody (AFP).
