Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks in the Australian Parliament
IN PHOTO: Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott speaks in the Australian Parliament located in the Australian capital city of Canberra February 23, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray

Amidst reports by the press that the government was in talks with prospective defectors, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that there would be no pardon meted out to those Aussies who return home after leaving terror organisations abroad.

The Prime Minister said that those Australians who join militant groups in foreign nations and then want to return home because of change of mind later will not be showered with any mercy. This was stated as a clarification to a report by The Australian Broadcasting Corporation or the ABC News. The report alleged that Australian authorities in the Middle East were negotiating with three Australian fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria radical group who wanted to leave but feared that they would be sent to prison cells in their homeland.

About 90 Australians are battling militant organisations in the Middle East. This is despite the fact that it is not considered legal for citizens to endorse armed groups in foreign lands.

While spelling out a ruling out of amnesty to them, Mr. Abbott remarked, "A crime is a crime is a crime. If you go abroad to break Australian law, if you go abroad to kill innocent people in the name of misguided fundamental extremism, if you go abroad to be an Islamist killer, well, we are hardly going to welcome you back into this country."

The Australian Prime Minister apprised Parliament that a minimum of 70 citizens were fighting in Iraq and Syria and they were getting encouragement and support from nearly 100 Australia-based "facilitators". Meanwhile, the figures of foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, travelling from scores of countries around the world, runs the thousands, according to security analysts.

One man was working as a medic in Syrian areas controlled by a couple of Islamist groups. His lawyer Rob Stary informed the ABC News that the Victorian had had his passport cancelled after travelling to the Middle East. The man has not been identified. Stary said possible confabulations with the Australian Federal Police over his client's possible return had reached a dead end.

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