Posted on 02/15/2008 8:15:09 AM PST by Righting
Terror accused told to kill 1,000, Australian court told
Feb. 13, 2008
MELBOURNE (AFP) — A Muslim "terrorist organisation" was urged by their leader to target football matches or a train station in Australia in a bid to kill 1,000 people, a court heard Wednesday.
A group of 12 men pleaded not guilty to a string of terrorism-related charges amid tight security in the Victorian Supreme Court.
Their alleged leader, cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, 47, had suggested during taped telephone calls that a bombing where the maximum loss of life could be inflicted, such as at a football ground, could be suitable, the court heard.
Benbrika taught the group that it was "permissible to kill women, children and the aged" in the cause of violent jihad or holy war, said prosecutor Richard Maidment.
Maidment said the case was about "a home-grown terrorist organisation" and that Benbrika had urged the group to do "something big" to pressure the Australian government to take its troops out of Iraq.
"If you kill here a thousand, the government is going to think, because if you get large numbers here, the government will listen," Maidment said Benbrika told fellow-accused Abdullah Merhi in a conversation intercepted by police.
In another conversation with an undercover police officer who infiltrated the group, Benbrika asked if he could be shown how to make explosives using ammonium nitrate, the prosecutor said.
He had asked how much was required to destroy a house and then wanted to know "how much to destroy a larger building."
The prosecutor also said that material, including literature on how to make bombs, and video tapes with messages from Osama Bin Laden, was seized from the group by police.
The jury would later hear that in another secretly recorded conversation, another of the accused, Ezzit Raad, remarks about the 2005 London bombings: "Terrible, should have been more."
"The crown case is encapsulated in the words of the accused themselves," Maidment said.
"When you listen (to the tapes) it will become clear to you that each of the accused was committed to violent jihad."
The men were arrested in a series of swoops in Sydney and Melbourne in November 2005, days after the government passed tough new anti-terrorism legislation, and remain in custody.
A group of nine men arrested at that time appeared in court in Sydney in May last year and pleaded not guilty to conspiring to launch a terrorist attack in Australia. Their trial is yet to begin.
Great comment, I have no idea why, Is it a latest PC trend?
The antiwarr-warriors, wouldn’t be able to respond why was Australia attacked in 2002 (Aussie youths in Bali).
Why don't you ask Timothy McVay. We'll send you straigth to hell so you can.
Ping.
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