AARON PATRICK: Will Labor spend as much pursuing ISIS fighters as it has SAS veterans?

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke promises the Government “won’t lift a finger” to help 13 Australians in Baghdad who may have been members of ISIS, the fanatical Sunni Islamic organisation that may have inspired the Bondi Beach massacre.

But choosing not to provide legal, financial or logistical assistance is a very different approach to Australian soldiers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan at the same time ISIS was engaging in its murderous rule across Iraq and Syria.

Over the past 10 years Coalition and Labor governments have allocated $300 million-plus to investigating and prosecuting military veterans. An inquiry was created under the control of a judge who had the power to force soldiers and veterans to give evidence against themselves and their colleagues. The Defence Force removed many of them from the army, abolished an SAS unit and revoked medals.

The allegations were dealt with, and continue to be treated, as a national priority.

What about the 13 Australians who might have fought for the other side in Iraq and Syria?

The Constitution may not allow the Government to permanently exclude any of them from Australia. Health Minister Mark Butler said on Friday morning they could be charged, just as several of the “ISIS brides” have been, when or if they return to Australia.

Does the Government regard investigating potential crimes against humanity committed by Australians on behalf of ISIS as high a priority as the prosecutions of ex-SAS soldiers Ben Roberts-Smith and Oliver Schulz, who are accused of executing six prisoners? (Both have pleaded not guilty.)

The SAS veterans have their own well-funded agency, the Office of the Special Investigator, dedicated to sending them to jail. The 13 Australians Iraq seems to want out of its overcrowded prisons will be left in the hands of the regular policing and justice system if they get home.

Among them is Majeed Raad, who was charged and acquitted over what became known as the Benbrika terrorist plot, an Al Qaeda-inspired plan in the early 2000s to detonate bombs in cities.

Raad moved from Melbourne to Syria to join Islamic State in 2013, according to The Australian, which first reported the Australian prisoners in Iraq might be designated non-combatants and freed. Raad has been in prison since 2019 after being captured at the end of the ISIS caliphate in Syria.

Choice of case?

Given the chaos of the ISIS wars, the death of many people involved and the problems of gathering evidence in foreign countries, any prosecution would likely be difficult, straining the resources of the Australian Federal Police. Required to chose which defendant you would rather be, the odds would seem better in an ISIS trial.

“One of the biggest challenges is trying to get sufficient evidence of these individuals and the evil actions they carried out when they were part of the Islamic State caliphate in Syria and Iraq,” international security expert Will Geddes told the Seven network on Thursday.

Mr Geddes predicted the Australians would argue they were forced to participate in the terrorist group’s propaganda and activities. Several have already claimed they served minor roles such as cooks and drivers.

Although no longer holding territory, ISIS continues to violently pursue an Islamic caliphate across the Middle East. Among its victims in recent years are the kinds of innocent Afghans Australian forces were trying to protect during the nation’s longest war.

If the Albanese Government believes in equal justice, it could devote similar time, money and political capital to pursuing ISIS fighters as it has to former members of the Special Air Service Regiment.