A Sydney magistrate yesterday refused to grant bail to one of eight men arrested this week and charged with conspiring to make explosives in preparation for a terrorist attack, saying the evidence appeared to link him to a plot that could "create great disturbance inside this country."
Shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, short hair and a beard, the 29-year-old suspected terrorist, Mirsad Mulahalilovic, appeared for the brief bail hearing via a video link from a top security jail outside Sydney.
Prosecutors accused him of buying acid that could be used to make bombs and alleged Mulahalilovic is part of a Sydney-based terror cell that been meeting secretly over recent months and had bomb-making instructions stored on a computer memory card.
Mulahalilovic was the only one of eight suspects arrested in a string of dramatic pre-dawn raids on Tuesday in Sydney to apply for bail at the city's Central Local Court yesterday.
He and the other seven suspects are due to appear again in court on Dec. 5.
Defense attorney Phillip Boulten argued that the prosecution case, built over an 18-month investigation leading up to the mass arrests, consisted only of evidence that Mulahalilovic bought a 1m length of PVC piping and some plastic caps, and that police found hydrochloric acid in his house.
But Prosecutor Wendy Abraham argued that Mulahalilovic's case needed to be looked at in terms of his relationship with other suspects picked up in the raids, who are accused of being a terror cell led by a radical Islamic cleric based in Melbourne.
Abraham said that hydrochloric acid was one of the ingredients for explosives police found on the computer memory card.
Boulten argued that there was a "completely innocent explanation" for the acid, which could be used as a cleaner by Mulahalilovic, who is a painter and handyman. There is "no evidence that it was to be used for an illicit purpose," he said.
"This is a most marginal basis upon which to charge someone with a conspiracy to [carry out] a terrorist attack," Boulten said.
He accused authorities of keeping Mulahalilovic locked up for more than 20 hours each day since his arrest and preventing him from coming into contact with other prisoners or phoning his pregnant wife and other family members.
He said Mulahalilovic was kept shackled at the hands and feet during his brief exercise period at the prison, and was subject to near constant video surveillance.
Magistrate Allan Moore said that the preliminary evidence indicated Mulahalilovic was involved with others in activities ``which have the potential to create great disturbance inside this country.''
He refused to grant Mulahalilovic bail despite his family and friends' offer to put up three houses worth A$1 million (US$730,000) as a bond.
In a related terror case, Moore ordered 25-year-old Izzydeen Atik extradited to Victoria state where he was to be charged with membership in a terrorist group.
He was ordered to appear in court in Melbourne on Monday.
This week's raids also netted nine men in Melbourne accused of being in a terror group, including firebrand cleric Abu Bakr, who is accused of leading terror cells in both Sydney and Melbourne.
Police said the men were plotting a catastrophic terror attack on Australian soil, but were arrested before settling on a specific target.
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