Detained Aussie woman to be sent home from Yemen | The Australian

as was posted here ..,. Detained Aussie woman to be sent home from Yemen | The Australian

A SYDNEY woman detained in Yemen for three weeks, whose passport was cancelled on security grounds, could be deported soon.

Lawyers acting for mother of two Shyloh Jayne Giddins released a statement yesterday saying Yemeni security agencies would release her and her children, Omar,7, and Aminah, 5.

Her lawyer in Yemen, Abdul Rahman Barman, said: "There is a promise from security bodies that Mrs Giddins is about to be deported to her home with her children. The children remain under house arrest with Rafa Hussein, a Bengali citizen, who was earlier arrested on suspicion of terrorism."

A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was last night unaware of the deportation report.

Ms Giddins has been held by security authorities since May 16, about a month after Mr Smith cancelled her passport.


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Mr Smith has refused to say why Ms Giddins's passport was cancelled, citing operational reasons. However The Australian has been told that among the security agencies' concerns were Ms Giddins's links to Yemeni-based extremists. Yemeni security forces have arrested dozens of foreigners -- including a Briton, an American and three French citizens -- on suspicion of having links to al-Qa'ida.

No specific details of any charges have been released for any of the suspects.

The arrests come as Yemen struggles to contain a burgeoning threat from al-Qa'ida. The network has taken advantage of the chaos in the failing southern Arabian state -- Yemeni forces are distracted by a Shia insurgency in the north and calls for independence in the south -- to set up a reinvigorated offshoot known as al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Ms Giddins has been told virtually nothing about the reasons for her passport cancellation.

ASIO's statement of reasons says that Ms Giddins "has an extremist interpretation of Islam and her activities in Yemen are prejudicial to security". It assessed she was "likely to engage in activities prejudicial to the security of Australia or another nation". ASIO will not elaborate on the activities to which this refers.

Ms Giddins's lawyer, Stephen Hopper, has said the statement provided insufficient reasons, and ASIO's comment on Ms Giddins's religious beliefs constituted "religious persecution".

Much of the information for the round-up of foreigners appears to come from the arrest last year of would-be Detroit plane bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has reportedly told the FBI of other foreigners he met in al-Qa'ida-run training camps in Yemen.

Ms Giddins, aged about 30, has reportedly been targeted by ASIO for, among other things, her former marriage to Lebanese-Australian Mohammed Touma, a senior Lebanese crime figure.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: THE TIMES