Piecing together a picture of hate in Sydney terror trial

as posted here

James Madden | October 17, 2009

Article from: The Australian

THEY were a mixed bunch with a common goal. The group of nine terrorists - including an engineer, a self-confessed computer geek, a reformed Bondi party boy, a security guard and a butcher - was drawn together by the shared desire to wage violent jihad in Australia against those who did not share their extremist views.

Yesterday, after a trial lasting just shy of a year, a jury found five members of the group guilty of conspiring to commit an act in preparation for a terrorist act. Unbeknown to the jury, the group's four co-conspirators had pleaded guilty to various terrorism-related charges before the trial began.

Crucially, there was no smoking gun that linked the men to the crime. Crown prosecutor Richard Maidment SC admitted in his closing address to the NSW Supreme Court that it was a circumstantial case.

"This was a case that relied on circumstantial evidence, creating a picture in the nature of a mosaic or a large jigsaw puzzle," he said.

"The crown does not suggest that the evidence reveals that they had reached any firm conclusion as to what precise action was to be carried out, what targets were to be selected, who was actually to carry the bomb, where it was to be placed, how it was to be placed, how big it was going to be, whether it was going to be in a vehicle or in a backpack, or how it was going to be taken to the relevant target."

Indeed, the jury only needed to be satisfied that there was an agreement - unspoken or otherwise - to commit the crime. "It is not like entering into an agreement for a house or anything like that. You do not need to have written it down. You do not even need to have spoken it. An agreement, in this context, can be reached by an understanding," Mr Maidment said.

While details of their planned target remains a mystery, the jury was told the group was motivated by "a perception that the participation of Australia in the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan ... were acts of aggression against the wider Muslim community".

The men were arrested in the early hours of November 8, 2005.

A 44-year-old man was the "puppet master", according to the crown. He financed the conspiracy, attended training camps with his co-accused and was found in possession of 12 guns and almost 30,000 rounds of ammunition. A 36-year-old man was the other unofficial leader of the Sydney-based crew. He is alleged to have trained with terror organisation LET in Pakistan in 1999, and was under surveillance by ASIO for most of this decade. His nephew, 32, also attended bush training camps - said to have involved explosives training - and was found to have files on bomb-making on his computer.

Of the other two men found guilty yesterday, a 40-year-old had placed large orders for bomb-making materials, including sulphuric acid and acetone, while a 25-year-old had assisted him, and was found to be in possession of extremist material. The 40-year-old man was also said to be a key local contact for French militant Willie Brigitte, who visited Australia in 2003. The 40-year-old was charged in July 2005 with lying to ASIO about his links to Brigitte.

Before the commencement of the NSW Supreme Court trial in November last year, four co-conspirators pleaded guilty to various charges in relation to the terror plot. But the four men who had entered early guilty pleas refused to give evidence against their five co-accused, and the jury - while aware of their relationships with the men on trial - was not told they had pleaded guilty.

During the trial, only the 40-year-old man exercised his right to take the witness stand. He denied he had ever participated in paramilitary training with any of his co-accused, telling the jury the bush getaways involved "hunting, cooking and praying".

He also rejected the crown's assertion that he bought bomb-making equipment from a Melbourne science equipment supplier. He said the lab paraphernalia found by police when they raided his home in November 2005 was used by his wife to home-school their children. "I have no knowledge of whether these (items) can make bombs," he told the jury.

Along with the existence of extremist and instructional material - which was found by police at the homes of some of the men and included literature titled The Terrorist Handbook and The White Resistance Manual - the prosecution case relied heavily upon phone taps and police surveillance conducted between July 2004 to November 2005.

The 44-year-old was observed purchasing large amounts of ammunition, while on separate occasions four of the five men were said to have been in contact with a foreign-born Muslim cleric, who was also under police surveillance.

One of the men was overheard in conversation with the cleric, who said: "If we want to die for jihad, we do maximum damage ... damage to their buildings, damage to their lives."

But counsel for the 44-year-old man, David Dalton SC, told the jury the crown's case was weak and prejudicial, with notions akin to McCarthyism. "Do we have an attempt to murder? Do we have an attempt to commit a terrorist act? No, we don't. Do we have an agreement to commit a terrorist act? No, we don't.

"We have an agreement to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act. Do we know what the terrorist act is? No, we don't. We don't have an act. It is just some act, some speculative act. So we have an agreement to do acts in preparation for a speculative act. That is pretty tough, isn't it?"

But Mr Maidment said the mindset of the group was exemplified by the reactions of two of the men when arrested. The jury heard that when the 36-year-old was arrested, he shouted: "Sharia law is going to prevail throughout this land. It is going to be ruled by it. All the lands is Allah's lands. Allah created it and he's given it to the Muslims and the Muslims are going to rule in it."

When the 25-year-old was arrested, he told police: "May Allah curse you, your children and your wives."

Mr Maidment said: "Those kind of sentiments ... betray a state of mind that is consistent with people who are prepared to do just what the crown has alleged; namely, to engage in preparation for the commission of terrorist acts involving the discharge of weapons or the use of weapons or the use of firearms or the use of the detonation of explosive devices, thus, threatening, property, lives and injury."

Mr Maidment said it was telling that even though the men knew they were under surveillance, they still "sought to obtain, in significant amounts, chemicals ... clearly for the purpose of making explosive devices". "It is only defiance ... that would have prompted them to do that, not caring ultimately whether they were caught or not, save that they wanted to avoid being caught, at least for so long as it took them to put their actions into effect."

They appeared defiant to the end. Yesterday, when the foreman read out the guilty verdicts, none of the five showed any emotion. Indeed, a couple of them smiled.

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