John Zakhariev: Sydney private school boy to jailed terror suspect

Only a few years ago John Zakhariev enjoyed high school life within the prestigious halls of Waverley College in Sydney’s exclusive inner east.

The teenager was part of the independent Catholic school’s debating team in 2012 when he graduated.

The following year, he had travelled to war-torn Syria to join a terrorist group, it’s been alleged, and he’s now spending his days in a jail cell in Bulgaria.

The 21-year-old has been in custody since September 2016 on terrorism charges. Authorities allege he had attempted to join a terror group in Syria, and was knocked back, so returned home to Australia. In 2016 he headed to Bulgaria on a European passport with a view to obtain further training that would be his ticket to fighting, Fairfax reports.

According to local media, prosecutors claimed the young Australian “had clear intentions to carry out assassinations”.

In an interview with local media last year, Mr Zakhariev’s father who has since died, a former United Nations Diplomat, said his son had converted to Islam after becoming disillusioned with Christianity in school.

“He converted to in 2013, after he just graduated from school,” Svetlomir Zakhariev told reporters in Belgium.

“At this point in Australia he developed a great campaign against paedophile Catholic priests. He was very disappointed by Christianity after the Christian school.

John Zakhariev attended Sydney’s Waverley College before travelling to Syria and then Bulgaria.Source:News Limited

Online comments attributed to John Zakhariev posted in 2012, before the teenager travelled to Syria, show he was disgruntled with “Western imperial propaganda towards Syria”.

“I’m sick of hearing the biased Western Imperial propaganda towards Syria and Bashar Al Assad,” the commenter wrote.

“It is more than clear now that the uprising in Syria is not a secular one but an Islamist one ... Watch the footage from fighting in Syria the majority of them come from Islamist websites ... stop putting forward lies about what’s happening in Syria tell the truth.”

Mr Zakhariev’s family now fears the Bulgarian government will want to make an example of him.

His sister told Fairfax Media she first thought news of his arrest was a joke.

“At first, I just thought it was a big misunderstanding, we laughed it off thinking he’d be home in a couple of weeks because he’d done nothing wrong,” she said.

“But as months and months passed, it became more serious. My fear is that the government wants to make an example out of him and he’ll go to jail for something he didn’t do.”

He is currently on trial, expected to front a court hearing on 17 March and faces jail.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told news.com.au it was providing appropriate consular assistance to an Australian man detained in Bulgaria, in accordance to the Consular Services Charter.