A Muslim convert accused of plotting to blow up Israel's embassy in Canberra became the first Austra-lian convicted under new terror laws yesterday after suddenly pleading guilty during his trial.
Jack Roche, a British-born former taxi driver and factory worker, had been on trial since pleading not guilty on May 17 to conspiring with senior members of the al-Qaeda terror network to bomb the embassy with a truck bomb.
But when the 50-year-old was asked again yesterday at Perth's District Court how he pleaded, he replied: "Guilty."
Roche is now facing up to 25 years in jail under laws progressively toughened since the October 2002 Bali bomb attacks which claimed the lives of 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Roche had confessed to receiving training in terrorist techniques, carrying out surveillance of possible Australian targets for attack and trying unsuccessfully to recruit militants for attacks in Australia.
He also admitted to being a member of the Southeast Asian Islamic group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and told the jury he was instructed to call off the planned attack on the embassy by the man he knew as JI's leader, Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir.
In testimony this week, he said he had been an alcoholic working in a factory in Sydney when he found Islam in the 1990s.
So committed was he that he was ready to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan and was sent there in 2000, he believed, to undergo military-style training at a desert camp.
There he had briefly met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"He is a very nice man, but I only met him for a short time ... just outside Kandahar," Roche said. "I mean his people are very nice ... it sounds a strange thing to say."
After meeting bin Laden and spending time with his deputies Abu Hafs and a man identified as Saif, Roche said, "the penny began to drop" about what was expected of him. Abu Hafs and Saif questioned him about Israeli interests in Australia, as well as prominent Melbourne businessman Joe Gutnick.
"I had agreed to surveil the Israeli embassy and gather information about Joe Gutnick," he said.
Choking back tears, he said he feared he would be killed if he failed to follow al-Qaeda orders to carry out surveillance on targets in Australia.
Earlier, the court heard that he had bought high-powered rocket engine igniters before his 2002 arrest and considered US targets in Australia to be "legitimate targets."
In a taped interview with a reporter, Roche said the US was seen by many as "aggressors."
"If someone punches you, you are allowed to punch them back," he said on the tape. "I am very concerned about my brothers and sisters of Islam who are being punched by these people."
After Roche's dramatic turnabout, Judge Paul Healy directed the jury to record a guilty verdict. The trial was adjourned until Tuesday for sentencing submissions.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday he intends to push Washington next week to expedite trials for two Australian terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay as a backlash against the US-led Iraq war was starting to damage his government.
"They should be brought to trial as soon as possible. I understand plea bargaining discussions have been going on and I know progress has been made but I would like that accelerated," Howard told Australian radio.
Howard, a close US ally, admitted he was concerned by opinion polls which now show 63 percent of Australians believe the war in Iraq was unjustified. His eight-year-old government trails in polls ahead of an election expected within months.
His conservative government has been a staunch supporter of the US-led war on terror, sending troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, but public support has swung against him on rising violence and after pictures showing US troops abusing Iraqi prisoners emerged.
Following reports that Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were mistreated in Cuba, Howard said he would ask President George W. Bush to investigate and expedite military trials for the pair held at the US camp for over two years without charge.
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