Father of jihadi fighter wants her life insurance paid out

THE father of Gold Coast ­jihadist Amira Karroum has launched a legal battle to claim her $300,000 life insur­ance policy.

Karroum, 22, changed from a “beautiful and loving” girl spending her days lounging on beaches to an armed soldier who died fighting for Islamic extremists in 2014.
Distraught father ­Moha­med Karroum, 72, said his daughter’s life insurance policy should be honoured because she was “tricked” into entering Syria at a time when it was not illegal to do so.

IntrustSuper refused to pay Karroum’s life insurance because of her ties to terrorist group al-Qa’ida and was ­supported by the Australian Government, which formally labelled her a terrorist after she was shot and dismembered by ISIS militants.

“They will not pay because you are not supposed to travel there but the law came in after Amira was killed,” he said.

“They said you can’t have (the money) because she went to a place she is not supposed to go.

“It was not illegal to go there until a year later, so she has done nothing wrong.

“(The extremists) got to her when she moved to Sydney at the mosque in Auburn.

“They all tricked her.”

In Sydney, Karroum married Yusuf Ali, an Adelaide-born American-Australian citizen who trained with ­al-Qa’ida overseas.

Her father is in discussions with Maurice Blackburn lawyers in Brisbane.

IntrustSuper declined to comment but The Courier-Mail confirmed Karroum, a former Sea World employee, was a member of the super­annuation fund, which automatically signs members up to life insurance.

Her father, a former Surfers Paradise kebab shop owner, said he was still struggling to deal with the loss of his daughter.

“They told her she would be there for humanitarian reasons but it was all a lie,” he said.

“She wasn’t there to fight.

“They shot my little girl in the head and cut her arms off.

“These are the people we are dealing with over there and she just got caught up in it all.”

old how his daughter introduced him to Islam but fell into the wrong crowd worshipping at an Auburn mosque.

“We would always go to the beach together — she loved the beach,” he said.

“She got me into (religion) but when she left the Gold Coast after (high) school, she met some people who lied to her and tricked her into going over there.”

Mr Karroum said it was Ali, going by the name of Tyler Casey, who convinced his daughter to leave the country in January, 2014.

The pair left by planning a trip to Denmark and met up with the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat Al Nusra, which was fighting ISIS militants.

Three weeks later, the two were ambushed and executed by ISIS gunmen in their home.

Originally published as Jihadist’s father fights for $300,000 payout