The Australian Federal Police has issued an arrest warrant against a former small-time Australian actor-turned ISIS senior recruiter, Mohammad Ali Baryalei for his role in sending dozens of its citizen to fight in Syria and Iraq.
The warrant was issued after ABC's 7.30 investigations found that the 33-year old Afghan refugee, who also worked as a club bouncer, was responsible for indoctrinating several, including the infamous Khaled Sharrouf who had posted pictures of his son holding a decapitated soldier's head, on Twitter.
The Guardian reported on Tuesday that a warrant had been issued for Baryalei's "alleged terrorism-related activities".
The Australian investigators also stated that Baryalei, who has acted in true-crime television series, Underbelly, is believed to have fled Australia. "Should Baryalei return to Australia, this warrant authorises law enforcement to arrest him immediately," the report stated.
Investigations into the recruitment activities of Mohammad Ali Baryalei have found that the former actor, over the years, placed himself among the top ring of the IS hierarchy.
Reports indicate that Baryalei operated around a Liverpool mosque, from where he send in recruits as young as seventeen to fight in Syria and Iraq wars.
The ABC's 7.30 report found that Mohammad Ali Baryalei, who had successfully indoctrinated and recruited at least over 50 people, also played a crucial role in sending Amira Karroum and her husband Tyler Casey to Aleppo. News reports in January this year shocked both United States and Australia, after it emerged that a young couple Amira Karroum and Tyler Casey were gunned down in Aleppo in Syria while fighting for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
What was shocking was the fact that both Karroum and Casey came from families that had nothing to do with jihadist activities.
Karroum was born to a New Zealander mother and a secular Lebanese father, who has a multi-million-dollar restaurant business on the Gold Coast. As a teen Karroum studied at an exclusive Gold Coast Anglican private girls' school and spend time sunbathing on the beach, going to nightclubs and working at Sea World.
Similarly, Tyler Casey, Karroum's husband was born in Adelaide in 1990 and held a dual US and Australian citizenship. Casey was born in a conservative Christian family, but in his youth during a visit to Australia, he converted to Islam. He spent his teen years in the city of Colorado Springs, US.
