Both offences carry a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail.<\/p>\n
El Houli’s lawyer flags possible multiple sclerosis diagnosis<\/p>\n
Today’s bail application was adjourned to give the defence time to organise expert witnesses to testify.<\/p>\n
Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan, quoting from prosecutors’ legal submissions, said Ms El Houli was accused of travelling to Syria and marrying several Islamic State members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She allegedly expressed radical views supporting terrorism, tried to indoctrinate her young children, and attempted to recruit people to go to Syria.<\/p>\n
Ms Hannan said she would want to hear evidence about Ms El Houli’s beliefs and motivations, and what took place when she was held in a detention camp and managed to escape.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/de0b2f0b34f7f7a19b2f0cee7062d451.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rayann El Houli, 34, was arrested in Melbourne on May 28. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
The chief magistrate said questions would be asked about Ms El Houli’s lack of participation in anti-terrorism programs.<\/p>\n
Mr Morrissey said his client was willing to undertake the programs but had been hamstrung by a potential diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n
Ms Hannan said the charges were “very serious” and she would need to weigh up risks to the community when deciding whether to grant bail.<\/p>\n
Ms El Houli sat in the court dock wearing a blue hijab, which did not obscure her face.<\/p>\n
This was in stark contrast to last week, when she wore a niqab, where only her eyes could be seen.<\/p>\n
Mr Morrissey said the change in attire was “an act of good faith” so that she could be visible to people in the courtroom.<\/p>\n
Ms El Houli was remanded in custody, with no date set for the bail application to resume.<\/p>\n
Smuggler helped escape from Syria<\/p>\n
The ABC understands Ms El Houli returned with another woman and four children from Lebanon in September 2025.<\/p>\n
They returned independently of community efforts to repatriate Australian citizens from displaced persons camps in Syria.<\/p>\n
AFP Deputy Commissioner National Security Hilda Sirec said in a briefing last week that Victoria Police were continuing to investigate the other woman.<\/p>\n
Police said Ms El Houli\u00a0had been detained by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and held with her family in the al-Hawl displaced persons camp in northern Syria.<\/p>\n
The ABC understands Rayann El Houli escaped the al-Hawl refugee camp with her sister and children, and paid a smuggler to get them into Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The pair’s mother then met them in Lebanon to care for the family, while the children underwent DNA testing to confirm their identity.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/aa6537417ef64a7a0596a7a651cca9ea.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rayann El Houli was part of a group that escaped from the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria. (Reuters: Ali Hashisho)<\/p>\n
The family then successfully applied for Australian passports, enabling them to return to Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Two separate groups of women, referred to by the media as “ISIS brides”, have returned to Sydney and Melbourne this month along with their children.<\/p>\n
Three of the returnees who arrived in early May have been charged with various offences.<\/p>\n
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett told a Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra last week\u00a0that evidence critical to pressing charges against Ms El Houli emerged only after other women returned from Syria this month.<\/p>\n
“That domestic six-month investigation, plus the recent return of four women and their children from Syria three weeks ago, has collected new, relevant evidence,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Melbourne woman charged with terrorism offences wants nothing to do with Islamic State and has renounced any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17192,127121,1108,43,1460,245008,41476,32723,55319,647,44,344259,66180,5316,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-707734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-bail","tag-broadmeadows","tag-court","tag-headlines","tag-is","tag-isis-brides","tag-islam","tag-islamic-state","tag-lebanon","tag-melbourne","tag-news","tag-rayann-el-houli","tag-syria","tag-terrorism","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}