Bridie Jabour theguardian.com, Thursday 18 September 2014
- 22-year-old charged with ‘preparing to commit a terrorist act’
- Plan was allegedly to publicly behead someone and film it
- More than 800 officers in biggest counter-terrorism operation
- 15 suspects detained
Abbott: Isis militants urged ‘demonstration killings’
videoA senior member of Islamic State was urging a network in Australia to carry out public beheadings, the prime minister has said, as a suspect was charged after the largest counter terrorism raids in Australia’s history.
More than 800 police officers were involved in raids in Sydney’s north-west on Thursday morning with 15 people detained.
One man, Omarjan Azari, 22, appeared in Sydney central court on Thursday afternoon to face charges of preparing to commit a terrorist act.
The other 14 detained can be held for a fortnight without charge under Australia’s counter-terrorism laws.
The prosecution said he planned to “shock, horrify and potentially terrify” the public with public executions. He was refused bail because he a serious risk of failing to appear in court, in part due to his “unusual level of fanaticism”.
Defence have argued the case against Azari is based on one intercepted phone call, which the prosecution said was what triggered the operation.
When asked about reports that there were plans to conduct a public beheading in Australia, Tony Abbott replied: “That’s the intelligence we received.”
“The exhortations, quite direct exhortations, were coming from an Australian, who is apparently quite senior in ISIL, to networks of support back in Australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country.
“So this is not just suspicion, this is intent and that’s why the police and security agencies decided to act in the way they have,” he told reporters in Arnhem Land.
Abbott played down the possibility that Australia’s renewed involvement in Iraq would increase the chance of terror plots against Australian targets. He said Australia was targeted in Bali in 2002 before any involvement in the previous Iraq war.
“These people, I regret to say, do not hate us for what we do, they hate us for who we are and how we live. That’s what makes us a target, the fact that we are different from their view of what an ideal society should look like, the fact that we are free, we are pluralist, we are tolerant, we are welcoming, we are accepting,” he said.
“All of these, in their eyes, are wrong and that’s what makes us a target and that’s something that should never change about us. We should always be a free, fair, open and tolerant country.”
Abbott said he had not received warnings Australia was more likely to be the subject of a home-grown terrorist attack than other countries, but it was important security agencies were one step ahead of groups who wanted to do Australians harm.
Australian federal police Acting Commissioner Andrew Colvin said a violent attack had been planned for “the streets of New South Wales”.
There were reports the plan was to kidnap someone from the street and behead them while filming it.
The pre-dawn raids in Sydney were conducted at the same time as, but not directly related to, raids in Queensland with police saying the raids south of Brisbane were in relation to a counter-terrorism raid last week where two people were arrested and charged. About 70 officers were involved in Thursday’s raids in Queensland.
The New South Wales police commissioner, Andrew Scipione, said there was no need to “whip” up the raids and that the operation reflected the strength and capability of Australia’s counter-terrorism forces.
“Our police will continue to work tirelessly to prevent any such attacks but certainly can I stress that right now, is a time for calm. We don’t need to whip this up.”
Police search at a house in Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, Thursday, Sep 18, 2014. Police are executing search warrants in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt East, Logan and Underwood and have confirmed the operation was linked to the counter-terrorism raids in Sydney. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP
He said it would become apparent through the courts what was going to happen.
Some of those arrested have had their passports cancelled because they were planning to travel to Syria or Iraq.
Twenty-five search warrants were executed in the Sydney raids which were in the suburbs of Beecroft, Bellavista, Guildford, Merrylands, Northmead, Wentworthville, Marsfield, Westmead, Castle Hill, Revesby, Bass Hill and Regents Park.
Colvin said the officers included investigators, forensic experts, tactical officers and surveillance officers.
“This is the largest operation of its type undertaken in Australia’s history,” he said.
“I think the message that we need to make clear here is that police are working very hard across this country and are very well coordinated and the community should have absolute confidence in the work of their law enforcement security agencies to work together.
“While the raids in Queensland are not directly related to what has happened here today in NSW, as I said before, the investigations continue and we are looking at the linkages between the two.”
Police would not say if the targets of the operation had any links to Islamic State.
NSW premier Mike Baird delivered warned would-be terrorists that there would be no escape from the authorities.
“We will hunt you down,” he said on Thursday. “If you have any intent to bring overseas conflicts here, if you have any intent to threaten the security of this community, we will hunt you down.”
The raids come after the terror alert level in Australia was raised from medium to high last week.
Police say the threat level was not raised because of the intelligence that led to Thursday’s raids. Colvin said it had been raised because of a range of factors.
When asked if the prime minister was aware of the alleged planned attacks, Colvin responded: “Clearly you would understand that all levels of government need to understand what the national security threat in this country is. We have regular and ongoing briefings with all levels of government including the prime minister on the generic aspects of the national counter-terrorism threat, the national security threat.”
He added: “I don’t think anyone would be surprised it’s in the interests that the PM and political leaders have an understanding of what is going on.”
Two men aged 31 and 21 were arrested in last week’s raids in Queensland in a joint operation involving about 180 federal police and Queensland police.
It is alleged the men were involved in recruiting, facilitating and funding people to travel to Syria to engage in hostile activities.
The 31-year-old, Omar Succarieh, was charged with providing funds to the terrorist organisation Jabhat al-Nusra.
Agim Kruezi, the 21-year-old, is accused of recruiting another person to become a member of Islamic State and obtaining funds in preparation for incursions into a foreign state.
The previous largest counter-terrorism operation in Australia was Operation Pendennis in 2005 when 13 men were arrested over planned bomb attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.
