MELBOURNE, Australia
A Melbourne nurse who claims he was forced to aid Daesh in Syria appeared at a Sydney court Saturday after being arrested upon his return to Australia.
Adam Brookman, 39, did not speak during his brief appearance before the Parramatta Court via video link from a Sydney police center, ABC News reported.
A warrant for his arrest was issued Friday on two terrorism-related charges, and he had entered Australia under police escort at night.
According to the Australian Associated Press, court documents show that one charge is for knowingly providing support to Daesh by undertaking guard duty and reconnaissance from April 2010 to August 2014. The second involves undertaking guard duty and reconnaissance with the intention to support Daesh.
The father-of-five will be extradited under Australian Federal Police (AFP) control to Victoria state, where he is due to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Monday.
Adam Brookman, a Melbourne resident and father-of-five, reportedly travelled to Syria in early 2014 to offer his medic skills to aid people in the conflict-torn country, where a civil war has been raging since 2011.
Brookman had told Fairfax Media that he had been injured in an airstrike and sent to a Daesh-controlled hospital, which he was prohibited from leaving.
He said he fled to Turkey in December after witnessing atrocities by the extremist group.
"I don't agree with what they do at all," he said. "I don't agree with their kidnapping, with their dealings with other Muslim groups, and especially after they started executing journalists and other innocent civilians."
Brookman underlined, however, his support for “the struggle of the Syrian people."
"What I saw was Syria being ignored by the international community, I thought I could help," he told Fairfax.
Lawyers representing Brookman have been negotiating with the AFP about his return since April, the broadcaster reported.
Since last year, Australia has been concerned about its nationals joining or supporting groups fighting in the Middle East and the impact it could have on the country in case of their return.
In December, Australia passed a law that bans Australian citizens from traveling to Syria’s Raqqa province, unless they have a “legitimate purpose” for being there, before adding Iraq’s Mosul as a no-go zone in March.
Last month, Prime Minister Tony Abbott introduced a controversial law under which Australian dual nationals suspected of involvement in “terrorism” can be stripped of citizenship.
