Two Saudi Arabian sisters who fled their homeland have died inside their Sydney apartment after they were cut off from their family, months earlier.
Asra Abdullah Alsehli, 24, and Amaal Abdullah Alsehli, 23, were found dead inside their Canterbury unit in the city's southwest on June 7, 2022.
Australian Police said they suspected the sisters died following a suicide pact.
They fled Saudi Arabia, some five years ago and arrived in Australia with $5,000 in savings.
A source told the Daily Telegraph, 'There was a stream of money coming to them from their (family) that stopped in February, Now, we don't know why it stopped, but it seems there had been some sort of a fallout with their family overseas.
'After that, they cut off communications with everybody.'
According to NSW Police, the sisters remained inside the apartment from late February, shortly after they stopped receiving money from their family until early April when they died, the Daily Telegraph reported.
They spoke to their father only once more and received a visit from NSW Sheriff who told them that they would be 'kicked out or evicted' from the Canterbury unit after they fell behind about $5,000 on their rent.
Mails piled up outside their door, prompting the Building manager Michael Baird to ask the police to conduct a welfare check on the two women. They refused to open the door when the police arrived.
Police carried out three welfare checks in the months before the girls were finally discovered.
According to the Building manager,
'Eventually, the door was opened and the police stood at the door, asking the girls a series of questions,
'They said they were OK. They didn't want any police involvement. And the police left it at that, " he told the ABC.
Later, the sheriff's office came back to evict the girls in June, and found their bodies in separate bedrooms of the first-floor unit.
Although the cause of their death remains unclear, multiple sources believe the girls fell out with their 'well-connected' family.
Inconclusive toxicology reports found unusual levels of sodium, nitrate, and fluoride in the apartment.
The girls suggested to many of their friends that they were being followed by a private investigator, but Police said they found no evidence of such.
Sources with knowledge of the investigation believe the girls were aware of the dangers of returning to Saudi Arabia and decided to take their own lives.
'It looks like it is probably a suicide pact. They have taken a pill or something and just had enough for themselves because there were no traces of chemicals or anything found in the unit, or anyone else entering,' they told the Daily Telegraph.
According to Australian media reports, after arriving in Australia in 2017 the sisters lived for a period in the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield, with a large Arabic-speaking community
In 2022, they applied for subclass 866 protection visas which require applicants to have legally arrived in Australia and have valid reasons for seeking asylum.
In their applications, Asra claimed to have been an atheist while Amaal said she was a lesbian.
Police were told that Asra and Amaal attended a girls-only queer event in January 2022.
Same-sex relationships and atheism are strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia, where the legal system is based on a strict interpretation of Sharia law.
Reports published in Middle Eastern newspapers said the sisters had renounced Islam.
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