‘Disrespectful Behaviour’: Islamic State Recruiter’s Wife Guilty of Not Standing for Judge

The self-described second ‘wife’ of a convicted Islamic State terrorist recruiter who refused to stand for an Australian judge has been convicted of disrespectful behaviour.

The 50-year-old Muslim woman was found guilty in Sydney of nine counts of disrespectful behaviour in court. She claimed in her defense that she only stood for Allah.

Moutia Elzahed, the wife of jailed Islamic State extremist Hamdi Alqudsi, was the first person in the Australian state of NSW to face the charge after she refused to rise for a judge in 2016 purportedly on religious grounds, as Breitbart London reported.

Elzahed, clad in the traditional Islamic burqa, again did not stand but folded her arms when magistrate Carolyn Huntsman left the bench after delivering her ruling on Friday.

The magistrate had found Elzahed intentionally flouted the established court convention on nine separate occasions in 2016 when she remained seated in front of District Court Judge Audrey Balla.

Elzahed said she only stood for Allah, but the trial judge ruled Friday there was no evidence she was acting on a genuine religious belief or that the teachings of Islam compelled such behaviour.

Defence barrister David Humehad had argued his client should be acquitted because there was no evidence Elzahed was under a legal duty to stand.

Elzahed, who lost her civil action and was ordered to pay $250,000 in police legal costs, earlier this week appealed the trial judge’s ruling that she could not give evidence while wearing a niqab.

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