SYDNEY, July 24 (UPI) — Adam Brookman, an Australian nurse in Syria who claims to have been forced to work for the Islamic State, is returning home under police escort.
Brookman, a convert to Islam, is the first Australian to return home from the conflict. He claimed in May he went to Syria to perform humanitarian work but was injured in an airstrike, taken to an IS-controlled hospital and forced to work on their behalf.
It is a crime, under Australian law, to be involved with militant groups identified as terrorists, and Justice Minister Michael Keegan said Brookman would be investigated. Brookman traveled home from the Middle East escorted by agents of the Australian Federal Police.
“The issue is if somebody has involved themselves in the conflict in Iraq and Syria. If they’ve supported or fought alongside a terror organization, what is it that we’re going to do with them if they return to Australia as they’re legally entitled to do?” Keegan commented.
The case against Brookman may not be effective in court, relying on admissible evidence difficult to obtain in the chaos of Syria’s civil war and sectarian violence.
“It’s going to be difficult to prove that he went to engage in hostile activities,” commented Nick O’Brien of Australia’s Charles Sturt University’s school of police and security.
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