Two of the Australian terrorism suspects arrested in Yemen are reportedly the young sons of a Jemaah Islamiah agent. | The brothers, aged 18 and 20, are the sons of Abdul Rahim Ayub, who set up a Jemaah Islamiah cell in Australia and fled after the Bali bombings. |
The couple met in Indonesia, after Ms Hutchinson became a strict Muslim, and they wed in 1984. Her husband's twin brother, Abdul Rahman Ayub, reportedly fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Ms Hutchinson is in Yemen with her sons, Mohammed Ayub and Abdullah Ayub, Fairfax reports.
| They are part of a group - that has been under ASIO scrutiny for years - insisting they went to Yemen to further their religious instruction. |
News Ltd reports that a fourth Australian may have been arrested in Yemen over the plot. The men are among a group of eight foreigners with suspected links to al-Qaeda who are facing terrorism charges in Yemen over an alleged plot to smuggle arms to Somalia.
Sydney lawyer Adam Houda is representing the Ayub brothers and has concerns about their welfare, citing Yemen's poor human rights record. Mr Houda said his clients had done nothing wrong. "We're talking about two kids here, one's 18 and one is 20, innocent of all claims or any links with terrorism," he said. He described claims that they had links to al-Qaeda as "totally ridiculous". Mr Houda was reluctant to discuss whether the brothers' had links to men who reportedly helped set up a Jemaah Islamiah (JI) cell in Australia.