A British migrant who plotted with al-Qaeda to blow up the Israeli embassy in the Australian capital with a truck bomb was released on parole yesterday after serving half of a nine-year sentence.
Muslim convert Jack Roche pleaded guilty to conspiring in the plan hatched by Osama bin Laden and senior terrorist operatives during a visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2000. The plot was never carried out.
Roche, 53, had faced up to 25 years in prison but was sentenced to nine after agreeing to tell officials about his involvement with al-Qaeda and its Southeast Asian offshoot, Jemaah Islamiyah.
He was sentenced in May 2004, but became eligible for parole now because time served since his arrest in 2002 was counted as part of the sentence.
Sporting a heavy beard, Roche left the high-security Casuarina Prison in Western Australia state by taxi yesterday.
In brief comments to reporters after arriving at his home in southern Perth, Roche said he was happy to be out of prison.
Asked if he was still in contact with al-Qaeda operatives, he replied, "No."
Under the conditions of his parole, Roche will have to report regularly to the federal police, who will also monitor his phone and Internet use.
`Quiet life'
Defense lawyer Hylton Quail urged the public to leave Roche in peace, telling Australian Broadcasting Corp radio his client "just wants to live a quiet life."
Originally from Hull in northern England, Roche at first denied being involved in the embassy bomb plot, but changed his plea just 10 days into his 2004 trial.
Roche told the court that he had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in early 2000, where he met with bin Laden as well as several senior al-Qaeda operatives, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, one of the alleged architects of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US.
Roche said bin Laden ordered him to set up a terror cell in Australia to target Israeli interests.
When he returned to Australia, Roche said he had doubts about the plan, but was afraid members of al-Qaeda or Jemaah Islamiyah would find him and kill him if he didn't carry out the attack.
He claimed to have entered the world of international terrorism through Australian contacts after he converted to Islam to overcome alcohol addiction, and he said he quickly fell out of his depth.
"I was in a situation and I couldn't stop it," Roche testified at the time. "You just don't walk away from these kinds of people."
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