Cell members who plotted to bomb MCG win appeals

[eagleboy]

SIX members of a terrorist organisation that plotted to bomb the MCG and Flinders St station have had a total of 8 1/2 years knocked off their minimum jail terms.

The Court of Appeal described the home-grown terrorist cell as "towards the lower end of the scale of seriousness" although it would have carried out attacks if it had not been shut down.

The court said sentencing judges should differentiate between terrorists that are "a rag-tag collection of malcontents" who might do something evil and hardline terrorists such as al-Qaida.

Two members of the terrorist cell were released this year and the ruling means two others will be free within weeks.

Court president Justice Chris Maxwell and Justices Geoff Nettle and Mark Weinberg said the words "terrorist organisation" might apply to a group that planned a terrorist attack of "as yet undetermined nature and scope".

"On the other hand it may include a terrorist organisation like al-Qaida or Jemaah Islamiah with a proven record of committing the worst terrorist acts imaginable," they said.

The men, who were sentenced in February last year, all appealed against conviction on the ground that the trial judge misdirected the jury. Five of the seven appealed against their sentences.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 49, the self-appointed sheik and leader of the band of hard-line Muslim "brothers", won a retrial on possessing an item connected with the preparation of a terrorist attack but the appeal court did not reduce his original 12-year minimum term.

Aimen Joud, 23, had convictions for two similar counts quashed and was resentenced for his remaining terrorist charges to six years and six months, a reduction of 18 months.

Ahmad Raad, 25, was re-sentenced to six years and six months, a reduction of 18 month. Ezzit Raad, 26, had his sentence reduced by 15 months to four years and six months; Fadl Sayadi, 28, by nine months to five years and three months; Amer Haddara, 29, by two years to four years; Abdullah Merhi, 23, by 18 months to three years.

Abdullah Merhi and Amer Haddara were freed in May.

In chilling phone calls played during their trial the plotters talked of picking targets around Melbourne to cause maximum casualties.

Cell members who plotted to bomb MCG win appeals | Herald Sun

[eagleboy]

CHARGES of plotting a terrorist act in Australia have been abandoned against extremist Muslim cleric Abdul Benbrika and three of his Melbourne terror cell members.

Supreme Court judge Terry Forrest granted a defence application to permanently stay charges against Benbrika, Aimen Joud, Fadl Sayadi and Ahmed Raad of jointly conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

While no specific target was identified by police, evidence was given at an earlier trial that possible targets of Benbrika's terror cell included the MCG during a Grand Final and Crown Casino during Grand Prix weekend.

Read more: Charges against Abdul Benbrika and terror cell members abandoned | Herald Sun

[eagleboy]

POLICE secretly created and exploded a "Mother of Satan" bomb to prove that Abdul Benbrika and his extremist followers had the materials to make the feared terrorist device.

They were able to show that terrorist followers of the radical Muslim cleric ordered or bought chemicals and specialist laboratory equipment to make a bomb capable of killing and injuring hundreds of people.

The "Mother of Satan" bomb is the weapon of choice for terrorists around the world.

It was used in the 2005 London Tube and bus bombings which killed 52 people and injured more than 700, as well as many more terror attacks during the past decade.

But now officers from the joint taskforce that foiled the devastating plot - which had included a bomb attack at Sydney's nuclear reactor - must face the fact Benbrika and the other Melbourne cell members will not face a jury.

Read more: Pulling pin on bomb terror plotters' trial | thetelegraph.com.au

[eagleboy]

FORMER immigration minister Nick Bolkus almost certainly intervened personally to overturn a deportation order against terrorist Abdul Benbrika.

Police have since discovered Benbrika was already recruiting for his Melbourne terror cell when either Mr Bolkus or the acting minister stepped in to save him in the 1990s.

"If any of the Immigration Review Tribunal decisions to deport Benbrika had been allowed to stand then, Benbrika's home-grown terror cell might never have been formed," said a police officer familiar with the case.

Former minister Nick Bolkus let terrorist Abdul Benbrika stay | Herald Sun

[eagleboy]

AUSTRALIA is stuck with extremist Muslim terrorist cell leader Abdul Benbrika.

The Herald Sun has discovered Benbrika has dual Australian and Algerian citizenship.

The Department of Immigration yesterday confirmed Australian citizens could not be deported to their place of birth except under exceptional circumstances.

None of those circumstances applies to Benbrika, 51, who is eligible for release from jail in six years.

The self-proclaimed religious sheik has never worked since arriving in Australia in 1989, and he and his wife and seven children were receiving welfare payments until his arrest in counter-terrorism raids in 2005.

Police, who have spent years investigating Benbrika, expect him to go back on welfare when he gets out in November 2017, having served the 12-year minimum term he got for being the leader of a terrorist organisation.

Benbrika arrived in Australia as a visitor on May 16, 1989. He overstayed and was officially declared an illegal immigrant on December 19, 1989. Ten months later he was ordered out of Australia for the first of three times.

Benbrika disappeared from the Immigration Department radar and stayed in Australia as an illegal immigrant.

He married Lebanese-born Rakia Abdallah on August 7, 1992, while he was an illegal immigrant.

Three months after the wedding, using the fact he was married to an Australian citizen, Benbrika applied for a visa to stay in the country.

Terror-cell cleric Abdul Benbrika to stay in Australia | Herald Sun

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[eagleboy]

So the immigration department says he cannot be deported except under exceptional circumstances what about leader of a terrorist organisation? may be the Govt. should refuse further welfare payments let his terrorist organisation help him financially.

Maybe if we have a Govt. with some nuts they might deport him but that's one or two years away, might be to late by then.