Ribal Al-Assad welcomes arrest warrant for Australian rebels in Syria
Tuesday, 29 July 2014
Arrest warrants issued for Australians suspected of fighting in Syria
Australia has issued arrest warrants for a pair of Australian citizens believed to be fighting in Syria, the ABC reported on Tuesday, after images emerged of one of them holding severed heads.
Australian federal police counter-terrorism chief Neil Gaughan told the ABC warrants had been issued for Australians Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar on terrorism offences.
A Twitter account linked to al-Qaida offshoot Islamic State last week published grisly pictures of the beheaded corpses and heads of five soldiers killed in Syria's Raqqa province, saying the soldiers were from Syria’s 17th division.
Sharrouf and Elomar travelled to Syria and Iraq late last year, the ABC reported, and late last week a Twitter account purported to belong to Sharrouf showed pictures of Elomar handling severed heads.
"As soon as they set foot on Australian soil they will be taken into custody," Gaughan said.
The Australian government has raised the alarm about the number of its citizens believed to be fighting alongside insurgents overseas, including an Australian suicide bomber who killed three people in Baghdad this month.
That has added to concern about radicalised fighters launching attacks when they return home, a threat the government has used to justify a package of new intelligence legislation.
The attorney general, George Brandis, told the ABC that concrete evidence had emerged to support those concerns.
"There is evidence that they are trained in terrorist tradecraft to perform acts of domestic terrorism in the event that they return either to their home countries or go elsewhere after they have been in theatre," Brandis told 7.30. "So that is a new and very alarming development."
Welcoming the news, ODFS Director, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I very much welcome this announcement from the Australian government and call on every other nation to follow it's example.
All those who are committing atrocities in Syria must be brought to justice for their crimes and all those who have travelled to Syria must be held accountable for their actions.
Furthermore, as I have repeatedly said, the international community must do everything possible to stop foreign nationals from entering Syria in the first place.
The only way to resolve the conflict is to put and end to the fighting and pursue a dialogue driven approach with all those who have a genuine belief in freedom and democracy.
This cannot happen whilst foreign fighters are still pouring into the country, perpetuating the violence - more robust action must be taken."