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| Down Under |
| Four tried over Australian army suicide plot |
| 2009-10-26 |
| A man accused of plotting to kill Australian soldiers in an armed assault on a Sydney barracks expressed delight at devastating bushfires which killed 173 people here, a court heard Monday. Saney Aweys, 26, is one of four men ordered to stand trial on terrorism charges related to an alleged conspiracy to attack the Holsworthy Army Base on Sydney's outskirts in a suicide mission. Along with fellow accused Abdirahman Ahmed, 25, Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, 33, and Yacqub Khayre, 22, he pleaded not guilty at Melbourne Magistrates' Court to plotting to storm the base, a centre for thousands of military personnel. Among evidence released by the court was a transcript of an intercepted telephone call in which Aweys allegedly describes Australians as "filthy people" and thanks Allah for February's deadly wildfires. In March police intercepted a call to a friend in which he allegedly noted that wildfires had broken out across the country "and all were happy". "The whole nation is coming down, first the economy comes down first," he said in reference to the global financial crisis, before commenting on the drought and Melbourne's water shortage. "By Allah, factories shutting down, nothing here mate, nothing barely anything," he told the friend. "By Allah, I've never seen Melbourne like this, then fire coming to them, no water, the water storage is empty. "They are copping hard man. Thanks to Allah, thanks to Allah." Lawyers for the accused argued against the release of the transcript and other police evidence, which includes footage of one of the men looking at the army base. But magistrate Peter Reardon said public interest in the case warranted it. Reardon said there was sufficient evidence before the court for the men to stand trial. Aweys and his co-accused, who were picked up in a major counter-terrorism swoop in August, did not apply for bail and will face Melbourne Supreme Court on November 9. A fifth accused, 25-year-old Nayef El Sayed, has also been charged with helping prepare an armed attack on the base but has elected for a contested committal hearing next May rather than go straight to a Supreme Court trial. In February, bushfires killed 173 people in the southeastern state of Victoria, eradicating entire towns and destroying thousands of homes in a firestorm known as Black Saturday. |
| Posted by:ed |