NSW Police have made it clear that they don't believe the sons of hippie-turned-extremist Rabiyah Hutchison plotted to bomb Kings Cross station in Sydney. But Mohammed and Abdullah Ayub, children from Hutchison's marriage to the head of Jemaah Islamiah's terror cell in Australia, still have a lot of explaining to do. The two brothers were arrested in Yemen, along with Malek Samulski — a Sydney associate, on suspicions of terror and alleged involvement in an al-Qaeda gun-smuggling mission to Somalia. The Yemeni government also nabbed British, Danish and German nationals in a crackdown on terror suspects. However, radical mother Rabiyah Hutchison — who reportedly arranged the "study tour" that brought her family to Yemen — hasn't been taken into custody. Born in Mudgee, NSW, a young out-going Hutchison moved to Bali in the early eighties. After a failed first marriage with a Hindu man that produced a daughter, Hutchison married soon-to-be JI Australia leader Abdul Rahim Ayub in 1984. She returned home in 1985, with a husband who was on a mission to set up a terror cell called Mantiki 4 in Australia. With the help of Ayub's twin brother Abdul Rahman, they first set up a JI head office in north Sydney, and then later moved to Perth.
Hutchison and Ayub — who was granted Australian citizenship in 1988 — had two children in Australia, Mohammed and Abdullah. The pair separated in the late 1990s, and Ayub fled the country in 2002 after the Bali bombings. After settling in Lakemba in 2003, The Australian reported that Hutchison befriended the families of notorious terror suspects, including the wife of imprisoned al-Qaeda associate Willie Brigitte.
In 2004, Hutchison and her sons visited Pakistan and later travelled to Iran. The family was detained by Tehran police, who then turned them over to the ASIO. Although it was claimed that they had been training in Afghanistan, the ASIO released the family and allowed them to return to Australia. Last month Hutchison — considered by some to be more fanatical than her ex-husband — left Sydney with her sons, headed for Yemen.
Hutchison and her family are currently under close watch of the ASIO, and NSW Counter Terrorism Commander Nick Kaldas says Australia is not at risk of an imminent terrorist attack. "The main message I want to convey today, to the people of NSW, is that there is no imminent threat," Mr Kaldas told reporters in Sydney.