Alo-Bridget Namoa faces life in prison [1]
Monday, February 13, 2017 - 17:59. Updated on Monday, February 13, 2017 - 18:00.
Australian-Tongan teenager Alo-Bridget Namoa may spend the rest of her life in prison. Last Wednesday she was charged with plotting a terrorist attack by a Sydney Court, a charge which carries a penalty of life imprisonment. If convicted, the 19-year-old girl will be the first known convicted terrorist of Tongan descent.
Alo-Bridget's 19-year-old husband Sameh Bayda (Arabic descent) is also facing the same charges of plotting a terrorist attack. Alo-Bridget married her husband in December 2015 shortly after converting to Islam from Christianity.
The couple were arrested by an Australian Counter-Terrorism Team in Sydney January last year after a police raid on Sameh's house uncovered item's that Australian police alleged were "likely to facilitate a terrorist attack."
Sameh is alleged to have received instructions on how to make a bomb from terrorist organisation Al Qaeda. Australian Police also stated that during a search of Namoa's belongings, they uncovered a hunting knife, a terrorist flag, and a mobile phone stored with terrorist propaganda including videos of beheadings.
Following the arrest, Alo-Bridget was sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to answer questions during a police interrogation.
Alo-Bridget Namoa was born and raised in Australia by a Tongan Catholic family. Friends and relatives of Alo-Bridget have told media that she underwent an extreme personality change during high school.