Austria Will Jail ISIS Brides for 15 Years if They Attempt to Return
Austrian Government takes hardline approach to citizens to join terrorist groups
© press
ISIS brides who have fled Austria to join Jihadist terrorist groups in the Middle East will be jailed for 15 years if they attempt to return to the country, an Austrian deradicalization organization has warned.
Two young Austrian Jihadi women, dubbed "pin-up poster girls" for ISIS after they fled their home country to join the Islamic State, have been warned they will face lengthy prison sentences if they return.
Sabina Selimovic was just 15 years old and her friend Samra Kesinovic was 16 when they left Vienna in April 2014 to join the terrorists in Syria.
Aside from featuring in propaganda for the terror group - toting AK-47s surrounded by fighters - they both married and had children with ISIS fighters.
The pair had been reported dead in December but according to local media, Austrian intelligence officials claim those reports are false.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the world's youngest leader, has taken a hardline approach to issues such as illegal immigration and violations of a recent law in Austria that bans “political Islam.”
“Parallel societies, politicized Islam or radical tendencies have no place in our country,” Mr. Kurz said at a press conference announcing the measures in Vienna, while railing against the disastrous results of multiculturalism in Western Europe.
Chancellor Kurz believes Muslims must be loyal to Austria and willing to integrate into society if they are to stay in the country.
© press
According to NTD, under the strict rules guiding women’s lifestyles, after joining ISIS the women either wore clothes covering every part of their body, including their hair, except for their faces; or clothes so restrictive that only their eyes could be seen.
The pair were reportedly killed in November 2018 but recent Austrian media reports citing intelligence officials indicate that they’re actually alive.
Based on speculation that the women could re-enter Austria, an expert said the terrorists would face up to 15 years in prison if they did.
Moussa Al-Hassan Diaw of DERAD, a group in Austria committed to deradicalizing terrorists, told the Daily Mail the sentences would depend on which charges prosecutors brought against the so-called ISIS brides.
Charges could include spreading terrorist propaganda to murder, and prosecutors could use the women’s appearance on ISIS websites to help support the charges.
Their children would also be taken into custody if the girls returned to the country, possibly being given to relatives of the women if authorities found the relatives didn’t have extremist Islamist links or sympathies.
© press
Diaw said that authorities would interrogate the women to see their current views, noting that many ISIS members who returned to the West still believed in the jihadi cause.
According to Oesterreich, an Austrian newspaper, both women are still alive. The paper cited sources within the country’s intelligence agency BVT.
Government workers at the Austrian Foreign Ministry reportedly want to help the women and their children re-enter the country but Interior Minister Herbert Kickle is opposed.
According to the paper, the women are likely near Idlib near the Syrian-Kurdish border with their children and want to return to Austria.
A slew of wives and children of ISIS fighters are holed up in refugee camps as the United States and allies decimated the terror group in Syria, forcing fighters to flee if they didn’t die during the fighting.
The girls left a note when they fled Austria, telling them: “Don’t look for us. We will serve Allah—and we will die for him.”
At the time, a spokesperson for the Austrian Interior Ministry told Osterreich that the women couldn’t return to Austria.
“The main problem is about people coming back to Austria. Once they leave, this is almost impossible,” the spokesman said.
