'I didn't rape, I didn't kill': Aussie university accounting student who fled to fight with ISIS begs to come home – and claims he was once was jailed for watching Game of Thrones
- Another Australian who fled to fight for ISIS at age 21 has begged to come home
- Mahir Absar Alam, 26, was captured by Kurdish-led forces outside Baghouz
- Like many captured ISIS members, Alam has denied fighting for the terror group
- Alam claims he has denounced IS and won't be a threat if allowed to come back
An Australian university student who fled the country to fight for ISIS in Syria at the age of 21 has begged to be allowed to come home.
Mahir Absar Alam, 26, who was captured by Kurdish-led forces outside Baghouz in March, is the latest Islamic State recruit begging to be allowed back into Australia.
Like many captured ISIS members, Alam has denied fighting for the terror group and insisted he wouldn't be a threat if allowed to return.
Mahir Absar Alam, 26 (pictured), who was captured by Kurdish-led forces outside Baghouz in March, is the latest Islamic State recruit begging Australia to come home
'People need to understand that we didn't rape, we didn't kill, I didn't set anyone on fire,' Alam told ABC News.
The 26-year-old former Swinburne University accounting student said the militant group pushed really hard for him to fight but he refused.
'They asked me to fight, yeah. They normally force people to fight but I really pushed it — I couldn't fight,' he said.
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He claimed he instead worked as a nurse at several ISIS hospitals and occasionally worked alongside Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh.
Alam said while working as a nurse at the healthcare facilities he witnessed horrific cases which reflected the harsh brutality of life working under the militant group.
He described how he had seen innocent women and children get caught in the crossfire and killed for nothing resulting in 'rivers of blood'.
Like many captured ISIS members, Alam (pictured) has denied fighting for the militant group and insists he wouldn't be a threat if allowed to return
Alam claimed he instead worked as a nurse at several ISIS hospitals and occasionally worked alongside Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh (pictured)
The 26-year-old said he also saw notorious Australian terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohammed Elomar while working at ISIS hospitals.
Alam claimed things got really bad after he got into 'big trouble' for watching the TV show Game of Thrones.
He said he was charged for distributing movies by the terror group's feared morality police, the hisbah, who destroyed his personal hard drive of films.
Alam, who claims to have denounced the terror group, said he was eventually arrested by ISIS security services for attempting to bypass a checkpoint.
There are more than 2,500 displaced children from families with perceived or actual associations with ISIS living in camps (similar to al-Hol camp pictured) in North East Syria
He claimed he was mislead by the group's false promises and said if allowed to return home he is willing to face punishment.
The 26-year-old said he just wants to be as far away from the militant group as possible and has warned other Australians not to fall for their propaganda.
'So I'd tell them stay at home, stay at home, stay in your country,' he said.
Alam's plea for help comes just days after Sydney tradesman Mohammed Noor Masri, 26, said he wanted to get his Australian pregnant wife children out of Syria.
Australians begging to come home after fighting with ISIS
Oliver Bridgeman, 21
Olive Bridgeman, 21, (pictured) claims he went to Syria to be a humanitarian worker.
- The 21-year-old from Toowoomba in Queensland's Darling Downs claimed he travelled to Syria to be a humanitarian worker.
- He previously assured his mother and father he hadn't been fighting in the war-torn nation, where ISIS terrorists are battling for control.
- His passport has been cancelled by the Australian government and he has been stuck in the war-torn area since 2016.
Mahir Absar Alam, 26,
Mahir Absar Alam, 26, (pictured), was caught just outside Baghouz.
- Alam joined Islamic State just four weeks after it declared its so-called caliphate in 2014.
- He has allegedly expressed regret for joining.
- The 26-year-old faces spending time in a prison camp in Syria, and could be taken to Iraq for trial or possibly be deported back to Australia, where he could be prosecuted.
Ahmed Merhi, 27
Ahmed Merhi, 27, (pictured) has begged Australia to help him escape.
- Sydney terrorist Ahmed Merhi has begged Australia to help him after he was sentenced to death by hanging in Iraq.
- The former Granville Boys High School student, from Sydney's west, travelled to Syria in 2014 or 2015.
- At the time, he claimed he was travelling to the war-torn region to perform aid work.
Mohammed Noor Masri, 26
Mohammed Noor Masri, 26, (pictured) wants to get his wife and kids out of Syria
- The Sydney tradesman travelled to Syria to join ISIS in 2015 and is being held in a Kurdish camp.
- The 26-year-old said he was prepared to face a lengthy jail term in Australia for his 'mistake' if allowed to return with his family.
- He said he would prefer to be prosecuted in Australia or under international law, which recognises such things as 'human rights'.
Janai Safar, 24
Janai Safar, 24, (pictured), previously vowed never to return to Australia.
- Safar is living in a refugee camp in northern Syria after its defeat.
- She left Australia to allegedly join the jihadi terror group in 2015.
- She previously vowed she'd never return to Australia.
- 'It was my decision to come here to go away from where women are naked on the street. I don't want my son to be raised around that,' she said.
Zehra Duman, 24,
Zehra Duman, 24, (pictured) hit headlines in Australia when she fled to Syria in 2014.
- Duman, from Melbourne, is believed to be held at the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria with her two-year-old son and six-month-old daughter.
- She claims she has been trying to leave ISIS for two years.
- The 24-year-old said she knows Australians would be angry with her but insisted: 'My kids have a right to be treated like normal kids.'
Khaled Sharrouf's children: Zaynab, 17, Hoda, 16, and Humzeh, eight
Zaynab (top left), Hoda (top right), and Humzeh (bottom, middle) are in the al-Howl camp.
- The Australian terrorist's remaining three children have been held at the al-Hawl refugee camp in north-eastern Syria since mid-march.
- Their Sydney-based mother, Tara Nettleton, smuggled the children out of Australia after her husband left to join the caliphate.
- Nettleton is believed to have died in 2016, while Sharrouf and his two eldest sons were believed to have been killed in an airstrike in 2017.
'[I feel] remorseful, regretful. I mean, people make mistakes. And you have to pay the price for your mistake,' Mr Masri previously told The Sydney Morning Herald.
Like Alam, Masri said he was prepared to face a lengthy jail term in Australia for his 'mistake' if allowed to return with his family.
Both men's situations highlight the challenge for the Morrison government faces after being pressured to repatriate Australian ISIS extremists for prosecution.
There are more than 2,500 displaced children from families with perceived or actual associations with ISIS living in camps in North East Syria, Save the Children states.
But the Australian government has repeatedly said it is not prepared to change its stance on dealing with such people as far from the country as possible.
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