The “obsessed” man whose forged terror hit list purporting to target former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull saw a love rival arrested by counter-terrorism police has been jailed for more than four years.
Former UNSW IT worker Arsalan Tariq Khawaja wiped away tears as Judge Robert Weber handed him a maximum four year and six month prison sentence for his “unforgivable” actions.
But the older brother of cricket star Usman Khawaja could be released next year due to time already served, as Mr Weber imposed a two year and six month non-parole period on Thursday.
The 40-year-old made false reports to authorities and authored a fake terror manifesto in order to frame two men in 2017 and 2018.
One of them, Mohamed Kamer Nizamdeen spent four weeks in custody, his name splashed across newspapers, after being arrested in a high-profile terror investigation in August 2018.
Khawaja would plead guilty to charges including perverting the course of justice and dishonestly influencing a commonwealth official after police turned their attention to him after a series of handwriting and DNA tests in September 2018.
It all started on January 9, 2017, when Khawaja made a call to the Federal Government’s ‘Border Watch’ hotline to report a man who had started dating his ex-girlfriend.
“The offender did not take this development well. He was clearly obsessed by F1,” Mr Weber told the District Court on Thursday.
In the call Khawaja told authorities a man – known as M1 – conveyed “extremist ideology” to him and confided that he had undertaken weapons training in Pakistan.
The man was in contact with radical Islamist groups in Australia and overseas and planned to travel abroad to fight “nonbelievers”, he claimed in the call.
Mr Weber told the court Khawaja did so in the hope of rekindling a relationship with his ex and without regard for the potentially “serious consequences” for M1.
“In fact the offender had never met or spoken to M1,” Mr Weber said.
In mid-2018 Khawaja set his sights on UNSW work colleague Mr Nizamdeen who he believed was chatting with a new love interest Shakeela Shadid.
The IT worker forged a terror manifesto in Mr Nizamdeen’s work notebook, which he later pretended to discover behind a bookcase, titled “Goals for 2018 – Kamer”.
Those “goals” included “go for 6 weeks at end of year to Sri Lanka for weapons training, fighting skills”, “recruit brothers and sisters and converts for ISIS” and “attack UNSW chancellery building”.
The notebook recorded the ambition “go to Europe and America in 2019 to do attacks and meet brothers in Jihad”, and outlined plans to kill Mr Turnbull and high-profile MP Julie Bishop.
Khawaja would later testify in court he wrote the false entries in the notebook because he wanted Mr Nizamdeen “gone”.
Mr Weber said the “intelligent” Khawaja must have realised his actions would lead to Sri Lankan Mr Nizamdeen’s arrest or deportation from Australia.
“The offender’s actions have caused an innocent man to be incarcerated in a maximum-security prison,” the judge said.
The court heard his mental health issues, including borderline personality disorder, lowered his moral culpability and would cause jail to weigh more heavily on him.
Khawaja has already spent one year and 10 months in custody since being rearrested for breaching bail in December 2018.
He will be eligible for release June 26, 2021.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMioQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9uc3ctYWN0L2NvdXJ0cy1sYXcvYXJzYWxhbi1raGF3YWphLWNyaWNrZXQtc3RhcnMtYnJvdGhlci1qYWlsZWQtZm9yLWZha2UtdGVycm9yLXBsb3QvbmV3cy1zdG9yeS82YmE1MTZkYmM4ODZiYWYzZTM0NDc4ZTFkNjUxZDkxNNIBoQFodHRwczovL2FtcC5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9uYXRpb25hbC9uc3ctYWN0L2NvdXJ0cy1sYXcvYXJzYWxhbi1raGF3YWphLWNyaWNrZXQtc3RhcnMtYnJvdGhlci1qYWlsZWQtZm9yLWZha2UtdGVycm9yLXBsb3QvbmV3cy1zdG9yeS82YmE1MTZkYmM4ODZiYWYzZTM0NDc4ZTFkNjUxZDkxNA?oc=5
2020-11-05 01:17:12Z
52781168674788
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Arsalan Khawaja: Cricket star’s brother jailed for fake terror plot - NEWS.com.au"
Post a Comment