The prime minister says there will be no exceptions for disillusioned jihadi fighters who want to come home

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

No exceptions will be made for disillusioned jihadi fighters seeking to return to Australia, who will face arrest, prosecution and jail, Tony Abbott has said.

It was revealed on Tuesday that at least one Australian fighting with Islamic State in Syria has approached the government through intermediaries about the prospect of returning to Australia.

But negotiations have stalled. The Australian federal police are concerned the Victorian health worker might pose a threat to the community upon his return.

On Tuesday the prime minister said returning jihadis should expect to be jailed.

“A crime is a crime is a crime,” he said. “If you go abroad to break Australian law, if you go abroad to kill innocent people in the name of misguided fundamentalism and extremism, if you go abroad to become an Islamist killer, well, we are hardly going to welcome you back into this country.

“There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have been killed by the Daesh death cult and the other terrorist groups in that part of the world.”

Daesh is Abbott’s preferred term for Islamic State, or Isis.

“If you go, and you seek to come back, as far as this government is concerned you will be arrested, you will be prosecuted and you will be jailed,” Abbott said. “It is a serious criminal offence under Australian law to fight with terrorist groups overseas.”

The Victorian man, who has adopted the nom de guerre of Abu Ibrahim, told the US television network CBS in April that he had become disillusioned with Isis.

“A lot of people, when they come they have a lot of enthusiasm about what they’ve seen online, what they’ve seen on YouTube,” he said. “They see it as something a lot grander than what the reality is – it’s not all military parades or victories.”

At least two others – one an Isis fighter, another with Jabhat al-Nusra – have approached the government seeking to return home, the Australian reported on Tuesday.

A Melbourne lawyer, Rob Stary, has confirmed he is representing a foreign fighter, believed to be Abu Ibrahim, who wishes to return home.

Stary told 3AW radio his client, an Australian-born convert to Islam, was prepared to “face whatever offence he is alleged to have committed and he’ll be dealt with according to law here”.

“We’re not naive enough to suggest that he receive any indemnification, or that he should not be charged with appropriate offences,” Stary said. “If he’s engaged particularly in combat, or militarily in any way, then there’s an expectation he’d be charged.”

The health worker, who claims to have started working in a medical camp run by the Free Syrian Army, wanted to help “provide some benefit to the community here, both in terms of deradicalisation and probably intelligence”, Stary said.

“If he’s capable of reclamation then we should utilise him; we should at least engage in the discussion. But the shutters have been put up by the [police].

“I don’t know what the intelligence community knows about him, [but] we know there has been an adverse assessment of him. I’m certain the intelligence community would want to speak to him.”

About 33 Australians are thought to have travelled to participate in the conflict and returned to Australia, and up to 100 remain overseas. It is understood that some of the returnees fought against the Assad regime but did not join Islamist groups, and are considered to pose less of a threat.

A Northern Territory man, Matthew Gardiner, returned to Australia last month after serving with Kurdish militia groups. He was briefly held by police but released.

Professor Michele Grossman, a deradicalisation expert from Victoria University, told Guardian Australia on Tuesday that returned fighters were in a “unique position” to dissuade young Australians from joining the four-year conflict in the region.