Wednesday June 27, 2018
Ms Abdirahaman-Khalif was arrested at TAFE SA's Port Adelaide campus in May last year. Picture: 9NEWS
The identity of a young Adelaide woman, accused of
being South Australia's first member of terror group Islamic State
(ISIS), can be revealed for the first time.
Zainab
Abdirahaman-Khalif, 23, who moved to Australia from Somalia when she
was 14, is accused of pledging her allegiance to the terror group
online.
The nursing student was arrested at the
Port Adelaide TAFE campus by Australian Federal Police in May last
year, but a court-imposed secrecy order had prevented publication of her
name and image until now.
Ms Abdirahaman-Khalif is accused of singing ISIS propaganda songs at her home and swearing her loyalty to the group online.At
the time of the arrest, Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney from
Australian Federal Police said "there was online activity in terms of
her engaging with ... (terror) suspects around the world."
"She is of Somali origin, but we're not targeting race. We're targeting ideologies (and) we're targeting criminality," he said.
Ms Abdirahaman-Khalif's lawyer, Craig Caldicott, has previously questioned the evidence used to charge his client.
He said while his client may have had an "interest" in ISIS, she was not a member of the group.
Ms Abdirahaman-Khalif pleaded not guilty to a
charge of knowingly being a member of a terrorist organisation and will
now face a Supreme Court trial.
The trial by jury will begin on August 13 and is expected to run for up to six weeks.
If the young woman is found guilty, she faces up to 10 years behind bars.