Tuesday, 23 December 2014

Australia anti-terror police arrest two in Sydney

          Australian police said they did not believe an.            
                                       attack was imminent.                      

Counter-terrorism police in Sydney have arrested two men,
charging one with possession of documents designed to
facilitate a terrorist attack.
The other suspect was charged with breaching a control
order.
The arrests were related to a series of counter-terrorism
raids in September, officials said.
They come after Australia's prime minister said there had
been heightened "terror chatter" since a cafe siege in
Sydney last week.
That saw gunman Man Haron Monis, a self-styled cleric
originally from Iran, take 17 people hostage in a cafe in the
city centre. A 16-hour siege followed, during which two
hostages and Haron Monis were killed.
On Wednesday, Australian Federal Police Deputy
Commissioner Michael Phelan said the man arrested on the
terrorism charge, 20-year-old Sulayman Khalid, had
documents that mentioned potential government targets.
"I am confident that we've disrupted the activity that they
were planning," he said.
But he added: "There is nothing that indicates at all that
[there were] any specific targets or time frame in relation to
this particular activity at all."
Two people and the gunman died in Sydney last week
after a 16-hour siege


Mr Khalid, who did not apply for bail, could face up to 15
years in prison if convicted. The 21-year-old, who cannot
be named for legal reasons, was also denied bail.
Judges can issue control orders against persons of interest
in criminal cases, imposing restrictions on them. The 21-
year-old man had breached an order preventing him from
accessing certain forms of telecommunications.
'Terrorist sympathisers'
After raids in Sydney and Brisbane in September, police
said they had foiled a plot to "commit violent acts" in
Australia, including a plan to behead a member of the
public.
Police say 11 people have now been arrested and charged
with terrorism-related offences since the start of the
campaign, which began soon after Australia's terror threat
level was raised to "high" for the first time.
Mr Phelan said the ideology of the group targeted in the
raids was linked to that of militant group Islamic State, and
that its members were accused of helping people travel
overseas to fight with extremists.
After a meeting of the National Security Committee on
Tuesday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said there had been "a
heightened level of chatter amongst people who we would
normally think of as terrorist sympathisers".
"We don't know when and how an attack may come, but we
do know there are people with the intent and the capability
to carry out further attacks," he said.


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