Three guilty of planning terror attack
Updated 23 minutes ago
Terrorism target: Sydney's Holsworthy Army Barracks. (AAP: Dean Lewins)
Map: Sydney 2000 A Supreme Court jury has found three men guilty of planning a terrorist attack at an army base in Sydney.
The Melbourne men planned to kill as many people as possible in a shootout at the Holsworthy Army Barracks in reaction to Australia's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 34, Saney Edow Aweys, 27, and Nayef El Sayed, 26, have been found guilty of conspiring to prepare for or plan a terrorist act.
Two other men, Abdirahman Mohamud Ahmed, 26, and Yacqub Khayre, 23, have been acquitted and will be released from prison this afternoon.
Hundreds of intercepted telephone calls, many translated from Arabic or Somali, formed the basis of the prosecution's case.
The Australian Federal Police tapped the men's phones for the six months leading up to their arrests in August last year during raids across Victoria.
The court heard how Aweys and El Sayed did not trust Australia's religious scholars, so sought approval for the attack from two Somali sheikhs.
One of the sheikhs said the result would be "catastrophic", but that did not stop Fattal travelling to the army base, a site he later described as a "soft target".
Overwhelmingly apparent throughout the three-month trial was the group's strong opposition to Australia's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the phone conversations, they often expressed their support for Islamic fighters and some of them said they would be willing to become martyrs to advance the cause of Islam.
For the most part, the men were well behaved except for one outburst by Fattal. Midway through the trial, he stood up and swore at Justice Betty King before being quickly led out of the courtroom.
The three will appear in court for a mention hearing on January 24.
Tags: courts-and-trials, unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, australia, nsw, sydney-2000, melbourne-3000
First posted 29 minutes ago