A Muslim cleric and six followers were jailed for up to 15 years yesterday after being found guilty of forming an Australian terror cell that plotted bomb attacks designed to kill thousands.
“The organization fostered and encouraged its members to engage in violent jihad and to perform a terrorist act,” Judge Bernard Bongiorno told Victoria state’s Supreme Court after Australia’s biggest terror trial.
Firebrand cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 48, was jailed for 15 years, of which he must serve at least 12 years, while his followers received minimum terms of between four and seven-and-a-half years.
Algerian-born Benbrika had urged them to target large crowds at football matches or a train station to pressure the Australian government to withdraw its soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, the court heard.
Benbrika had said it was “permissible to kill women, children and the aged,” prosecutors said.
Material seized from the group included bomb-making instructions and video tapes with messages from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The men referred to themselves as mujahidin, or holy warriors, and considered violent jihad an integral part of their religious obligations, Bongiorno said.
Describing Benbrika as an “unskilled fanatic,” Bongiorno said he sought explosives training from an undercover police officer and “all evidence points to the conclusion that he maintains his position with respect to violent jihad.”
While the group had not chosen a specific target or carried out an attack, the judge said they had shown no remorse, and did not appear to have renounced their beliefs.
Remy Ven de Wiel, defending Benbrika, argued the defendants were not terrorists but young men learning about Islam from a self-styled sheikh who “couldn’t organize a booze-up in a brewery.”
He told the court his client was a braggart and did nothing more than talk about jihad, or holy war.
“The Muslims in Australia have a sense of powerlessness and political impotence and they express themselves,” Van de Wiel had told the jury.
After eight months of evidence the jurors found Benbrika guilty of directing a terrorist organization and the other six — Aimen Joud, 24, Fadl Sayadi, 28, Abdullah Merhi, 23, Ezzit Raad, 27, Ahmed Raad, 25 and Amer Haddara, 29 — of being members.
Ahmed Raad, Ezzit Raad and Joud were also found guilty of intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organization, while Joud and Benbrika were found guilty of possessing a CD connected with the preparation of a terrorist act.
Bongiorno jailed Joud and Ahmed Raad for a minimum seven-and-a-half years each, finding them most culpable after Benbrika. Sayadi will spend at least six years in prison, Ezzit Raad five years and nine months, Haddara four-and-a-half years and Merhi four years.
An eighth man, Izzydeen Atik, pleaded guilty in August 2007 and was jailed for five-and-a-half years.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS