MARK COLVIN: The Victorian Supreme Court has begun hearing the case against five men accused of planning a terrorist attack on the Holsworthy Army base in Sydney. The court has heard the men sought a religious decree, or fatwah, backing their alleged plan.
This afternoon the prosecution told the court that one of the men believed that the Victorian bushfires were retribution for the pursuit of terrorism suspects elsewhere.
Simon Lauder reports.
SIMON LAUDER: Wissam Fattal, Saney Aweys, Nayef El Sayed, Yacqub Khayre and Abdirahman Ahmed are all accused of conspiring to prepare or plan a terrorist act, namely an armed attack on the Australian Army Barracks at Holsworthy in New South Wales.
The men have been in custody since last year and today they sat calmly in the back of the court room, as the Crown outlined its case against them.
Justice Betty King told the jury of 14 to keep an open mind, telling them that the prosecution's case is not evidence and that they should presume the men are innocent. Justice King also told the court that the religion of Islam itself is not on trial.
The prosecutor, Nicholas Robinson SC, contends the men were prepared to kill as many people as possible to further their religion. He told the court that the men were planning to act because they were angry at the presence of Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and they thought it would advance the cause of Islam.
Mr Robinson says one of the accused, Fattal, went to the Holsworthy barracks to see whether it was a good target. It's also alleged the men were unhappy with advice they received from religious clerics in Australia that violence was wrong, so they sought a fatwah from a cleric in Somalia.
The court was told there are many recorded conversations between the accused, between some of the accused and a travel agent, and between some of the men and their parents.
Mr Robinson relayed a series of calls which were translated from Arabic and Somalian. In one of the calls Fattal tells an undercover officer, "if I find a way to kill the army, I swear to Allah, I'll do it". He was recorded saying he'd be rewarded in paradise for doing it.
In a later conversation Aweys was heard talking about a sentence in an earlier terrorism case, and the prosecution alleges Aweys refers to the Victorian bushfires as retribution.
The prosecution also quoted from phone calls between two of the accused about mobile phone SIM (subscriber identity module) cards. Nicholas Robinson says that's evidence the men were trying to avoid surveillance.
The Crown is using the intercepts to form a large part of its case but says the accused used a series of code words when discussing their plans on the phone. It's alleged they referred to conflicts involving Muslim people in Iraq and Chechnya.
Tight security surrounds the court for what is expected to be a lengthy trial. It will continue tomorrow.
MARK COLVIN: Simon Lauder.
The full story...
Melbourne terror trial begins
Simon Lauder reported this story on Monday, September 13, 2010 18:18:00
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