THE Australian wife of alleged terrorist Willie Brigitte has been detained in Paris. Melanie Brown, 27, who has been visiting France, where her husband is being held, was taken into custody on Tuesday and is currently being questioned by French police.
"Come wiz me, madam, if you please!"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Non." |
"Ms Brown is assisting French authorities with their inquiries into Mr Brigitte’s activities and is being treated in accordance with French law," Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said last night.
"Cigarette?"
"No, thank you. I don't smoke." |
"The French authorities are aware that the Australian Government has no information to suggest Ms Brown was involved in her husband’s security related activities."
| "And where were you on the night of the 14th, madam?" |
Mr Ruddock said Ms Brown had been advised that she should seek independent legal advice if she intended to travel to France.
"At home. In bed."
"Alone?" |
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs minister Alexander Downer said Ms Brown would receive consular assistance if she requested it.
"What do you think?"
"I don't think, madam. I only ask questions." |
It was unclear last night if Ms Brown had attempted to visit her husband.
"Tell me, is this your veil?"
"That's not a veil. It's a handkerchief."
"LeGume! Bring me the veil! This is a handkerchief!"
"Sorry, Inspecteur!" |
French authorities said earlier this month they had no record of her seeking permission to go to the bleak prison hidden behind Paris’s Orly Airport.
| It was a dark and stormy night. High on the hill, behind Paris' Orly Airport, the bleak prison was pounded by rain... |
A spokesman for the Australian Embassy in Paris said Ms Brown had not asked the embassy for help in trying to get access to her husband.
| "I need help! But... I cannot ask for it! It is too... dangerous!" |
Ms Brown, a former Australian soldier and student at Danebank Anglican School in Hurstville, met Caribbean-born Willie Brigitte in the middle of last year. Like her husband she had become a follower of Islam shortly before the marriage. Previously she had been a member of a Jewish lesbian group, even participating in a float for the organisation in Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in 2002.
| "Tell me, madam. How did you come to be a Jewish lesbian?" |
The pair rented a small two-bedroom flat in Shadforth St, Wiley Park, for six weeks. He had spent three years training as a marine in the French armed forces and she joined the army as a full-time soldier and after basic training moved into the signals corps. Ms Brown was reportedly trained in Arabic, was posted to Townsville, and undertook a tour of duty in East Timor.
"That is all for now. But, madam..."
"Yes?"
"Don't try to leave the country, eh?" |
Ms Brown has been cleared by ASIO and the Australian Federal Police of any wrongdoing or having any knowledge of what the al-Qaeda-trained Brigitte was doing in Australia. |