Convicted ISIS terrorist Haisem Zahab paroled to Young in December as Mariam ... trends now
A terrorist who built and fired deadly rockets from his cherry orchard in country NSW could be free to return there later this year - not far from the compound where his ISIS bride relative is staying while on bail.
Haisem Zahab, 48, was arrested in 2017 and jailed for nine years for designing guided missiles and laser warning systems for notorious terrorist group Islamic State.
His non-parole period of six years and nine months expires in December this year, clearing the way for him to return to his wife and children waiting on their farm in Young, 300km west of Sydney.
Just last week, Zahab's cousin-in-law Mariam Raad, 31, returned to a nearby ramshackle property on the outskirts of Young after being released on bail charged with travelling to an ISIS-controlled area, understood to be Raqqa, Syria.
Electrician Haisem Zahab (pictured testing a hobby rocket in his garden), 48, as jailed for nine years for spending three years helping ISIS
Mariam Raad (right, with her ISIS terrorist husband and Haisem's cousin Muhammad Zahab who died in Syria in 2018) has returned to the same NSW country town
She returned to Australia in October after the Albanese government repatriated four women and 13 children from the Al Roj refugee camp in Syria's northeast.
Police allege she knowingly travelled to the warzone in 2014 to be with Islamic State extremist Muhammad Zahab - her husband and Haisem Zahab's cousin.
A former Sydney high school maths teacher, Muhammad Zahab was reportedly the highest ranking Australian member of ISIS, who allegedly recruited dozens of his own family members, before he was killed in a targeted airstrike in Syria in 2018.
At Haisem Zahab's 2019 sentencing on charges of knowingly providing support or resources to a terrorist organisation, members of the Raad family gave character references describing him as 'reliable and trustworthy'.
Zahab designed rockets (pictured is one his designs) on his computer and also created a missile defence system that could detect when a rocket attack was imminent
Raad, a mother-of-four previously said she posed no threat to Australians (pictured: Roj camp in northeast Syria where she had been staying before returning to Australia)
Young has become the unofficial Muslim capital of country Australia with 2021 census data revealing about 500 of the town's 11,000 residents are Muslims, with many more temporary residents around holidays and festivals.
While many in Young's Muslim community, predominantly Lebanese immigrants, are peaceful, hard working community members, the revelations of some individuals' links to known extremists has sent shockwaves through the town.
'It's disturbing that (the
