An Australian mother and daughter accused of enslaving an Ezidi teenager while living under ISIS rule in Syria have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court.
Kawsar Ahmad, 54, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, appeared before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on 31 July 2026. The case is scheduled to return before the Supreme Court on 21 August.
Kawsar Ahmad pleaded not guilty to four crimes-against-humanity charges: enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading. Zeinab Ahmad pleaded not guilty to charges of enslavement and using a slave.
The women returned to Australia on 7 May after spending more than a decade overseas. They had previously been held at the Al-Roj camp in northern Syria following the fall of Baghouz, ISIS’s final territorial stronghold, in March 2019.
Australian authorities say the family left Australia in 2014 and settled in ISIS-controlled Syria in early 2015. According to prosecutors, Kawsar Ahmad’s husband and Zeinab Ahmad’s father, Mohammed Ahmad, purchased an Ezidi teenager for US$10,000 in June 2017. He is accused of telling her that she had been bought for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude.
Mohammed Ahmad remains detained in Iraq and has not been charged in Australia in connection with the case.
The survivor, who now lives outside Australia, told investigators that she endured physical and sexual violence while being held by the family. She said Kawsar Ahmad threatened her with beatings or being sold, while Zeinab Ahmad mistreated her and managed the household when her parents were absent. Prosecutors say she was later sold to another ISIS member and was bought and sold eight times in total before being freed in 2019.
Kawsar Ahmad has been released on bail, while Zeinab Ahmad remains in custody. Both women have pleaded not guilty. The charges have not yet been determined by the court.
