Call for unity after SA woman charged with terror offence
UPDATED: Groups representing South Australia’s African community are calling for calm after an Adelaide woman was charged with being a member of the Islamic State terror group.
An image of the woman with Australian Federal Police officers, released by the AFP.
The African-born 22-year-old appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday accused of being a member of a known terrorist organisation.
Australian Federal Police said she was an Australian citizen who came from Somalia as a teenager.
But the woman’s lawyer Craig Caldicott says she is actually from Kenya.
“I understand from speaking to the mother that she was born in Kenya and I figured that she’d know,” he told ABC radio today.
Four groups representing African communities – including the African Communities Council of SA and the African Women Federation – have issued a joint statement stressing “African is not synonymous with terrorism”.
“This is about criminal behaviour – it is not about race, ethnicity or religion,” they said.
“We ask that the privacy of the family of this young person is respected, and ask that we stand together, and refrain from racial or cultural vilification.”
Police will allege the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, cultivated relationships with IS members online and had pledged her allegiance to the terror group, Caldicott is planning a bail application and says his client denies the charge.
– AAP
