Zeinab Ahmad, an Australian woman charged with slavery offences after returning from a Syrian refugee camp, has made a second application for bail in Victoria’s Supreme Court. Her lawyers argue that she no longer supports extremist ideology and does not pose a community risk, citing psychiatric evidence that motherhood and the collapse of Islamic State changed her beliefs.

Ahmad lived in Syria from 2015 and is alleged to have known about the abuse of a teenage girl bought by her father for US$10,000, though she is not accused of physically assaulting her. A psychiatrist said there was no evidence of extremist-supporting behaviour since 2019, while police said she had made no pro-IS social-media posts since February 2017; prosecutors challenged the certainty of those conclusions. The court also heard that Ahmad has PTSD and deteriorating mental health in custody, where she has been separated from her daughter; she was previously refused bail in June.