Advertisement

Three men found guilty of plotting Christmas terror attack in Melbourne CBD

The prosecution said the men targeted Federation Square to maximise casualties.

The prosecution said the men targeted Federation Square to maximise casualties. Photo: ABC Radio Melbourne

Three men were found guilty of planning to conduct a terror attack in Melbourne’s CBD over the Christmas period in 2016, in a verdict handed down earlier this month, the ABC can reveal.

Abdullah Chaarani, 27, Ahmed Mohamed, 25, and Hamza Abbas, 23, face a possible sentence of life imprisonment for their roles in the plot.

The jury took just over six days to deliver their verdict on November 2, after a lengthy trial that heard the men had purchased machetes as well as metal pipes, light globes and batteries to make explosives, and had tried to obtain guns.

They had also conducted reconnaissance at Federation Square and in the surrounding area, where the prosecution alleged they wanted to carry out an attack in order to maximise casualties.

The men were unaware they were being followed and monitored by police.

Ahmed Mohamed, Abdullah Chaarani and Hamza Abbas in court. Sketch: Jeff Hayes

A series of telephone messages, emails and texts between the men were intercepted by authorities. Some of them detailed support for the Islamic State group and discussed their perceived obligation to join jihad.

The guilty verdict was initially subject to a non-publication order after an application to keep it secret was made by the men’s defence lawyers.

Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale denied that request, but suppressed the verdict to allow them time to appeal against his decision in a higher court.

Ibrahim Abbas, who pleaded guilty before the trial to his role in plotting the attack, was the key witness in the case against his cousin Chaarani, friend Mohamed and brother Hamza Abbas.

The 24-year-old claimed to have been the group’s ringleader and told the jury he had convinced his three co-accused to take part in the Islamic State-inspired plot.

Abbas told police he was thinking through the attack when the men were filmed on CCTV at Federation Square in the days before their arrest.

“I’m just thinking about how I’m going to use my knife as efficiently as possible,” he told police in an interview played to the jury.

“I was going to run at them, slice their necks.”

Abbas said he had told the men “it’s not hard to kill a person with a machete. It just takes one slice to the neck”.

ABC

Stay informed, daily
A FREE subscription to The New Daily arrives every morning and evening.
The New Daily is a trusted source of national news and information and is provided free for all Australians. Read our editorial charter
Copyright © 2024 The New Daily.
All rights reserved.