Print

Mail

wiki links

Aussie cops nab terror `plotters'

A terror group planning an attack in Australia had its operations seriously disrupted when authorities arrested three men allegedly linked to the organization in the southern city of Melbourne, police said yesterday.

Melbourne will stage the Australian Formula One Grand Prix Sunday, but police say the terrorists had yet to select a target and had been under months of close surveillance.

The three men were arrested on Friday night and charged with being members of an unnamed terrorist organization and intentionally making funds available to a terrorist organization, police said.

The charges carry maximum penalties of 25 years' imprisonment under Australia's tough new counterterrorism laws.

Police said the arrests were part of a national counterterrorism strike -- code named Operation Pendennis -- which netted 19 terror suspects in raids in Melbourne and Sydney in November.

The latest arrests "have seriously disrupted the activities of a group allegedly making arrangements to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia," Victoria state Police Commissioner Christine Nixon told reporters in the state capital Melbourne.

She said the terror suspects had yet to identify targets and had not threatened the Commonwealth Games -- a major international sporting event hosted by Melbourne last month.

"It's been an active investigation and we're confident the measures were in place to ensure the community's safety was guaranteed," she said.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Frank Prendergast said the joint police raids on Friday had disrupted a "significant threat" to the public and more arrests were possible.

Rob Stary, a lawyer who represents the first 10 men arrested in the November sweep in Melbourne as well as the latest three defendants, said all his clients had attended the same prayer group of a prominent radical Muslim cleric sympathetic to Osama bin Laden.

"The point of common interest between them is that they've all been members of the same prayer group," Stary told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

Neither Stary nor police would publicly name the three before their first appearance in a Melbourne Magistrates Court tomorrow when they will be formally charged and are expected to apply for bail.

Unsourced media reports yesterday said the three were devotees of self-styled cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who is one of the original 10 defendants.

Police allege Algerian-born Benbrika, also known as Abu Bakr, was the spiritual leader of terror cells in Melbourne and Sydney.

Police allege the two cells were planning a major terrorist bombing although the target was unclear.
This story has been viewed 1487 times.