Three men who allegedly plotted “chilling” terror attacks in Melbourne were charged early yesterday, less than two weeks after a stabbing rampage inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group left two dead, police said.
The trio, all Australian nationals of Turkish descent, were detained by counterterror police in overnight raids as they escalated preparations to attack crowded areas of Melbourne, the police said.
The three, two brothers aged 31 and 26 and a 21-year-old, were later charged with planning a terrorist action, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, officials said.
Photo: AFP
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the men were inspired by IS, but had no known links to a specific organization.
They had been under investigation since March, but had become “more energized” since the IS-inspired stabbing attack in Melbourne on Nov. 9, he said.
The men had sought to purchase semi-automatic .22 caliber rifles and police were concerned they could target Christmas season events that would see huge crowds gathering in the city.
“There was a view towards a crowded place, a place where maximum people would be attending, to be able to kill, we allege, as maximum an amount of people as possible,” Ashton told reporters.
The group had not yet picked a specific target or time for the attack, and Ashton added that police were confident that yesterday’s arrests had “neutralised any threat to the ... community from this group.”
In the Nov. 9 attack, a Somali-born Australian, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, stabbed and killed one man and wounded two others in a central shopping area before being shot dead by police.
Coincidentally, the victim of that attack, Sisto Malaspina, 74, was honored yesterday by a state funeral in Melbourne.
Hundreds of people, as well as dignitaries, attended a service at St Patrick’s Cathedral to bid farewell to Malaspina, the beloved owner of an Italian cafe and a well-known figure on the city’s vibrant restaurant scene.
The three arrested men were identified by local media as Ertunc and Samed Eriklioglu and Hanifi Halis. Court officials could not immediately confirm their identities.
“If we had not acted early in preventing this attack, we’ll allege the consequences would have been chilling, with ... a potential significant loss of human life,” federal counterterror police spokesman Ian Mccartney said in announcing the arrests.
Police have charged 90 people in relation to 40 counterterrorism investigations since 2014, when Australia’s terror alert level was raised to “probable.” Melbourne has been the target for a number of attacks.
In addition to the Nov. 9 knife rampage, a 28-year-old man was convicted last week on six counts of murder for mowing down dozens of people in the same street in January last year, and Shire Ali’s brother is in jail awaiting trial for a plot to cause mass casualties last New Year’s in the city’s Federation Square.
Shire Ali, like the three men arrested yesterday, had his passport canceled to keep him from joining IS, and Ashton said this might have led to their actions at home.
“The IS propaganda machine and that of al-Qaeda promotes this type of activity, so when people are prevented from travelling or it’s difficult to get to the conflict zone, often the view will be to change tack and commit an act in the country in which they live,” he said.
Police said the probe that led to yesterday’s arrests had been complicated by the suspects’ use of encrypted messaging apps, prompting the government to renew calls for urgent action on controversial legislation that would allow authorities to break the encryption.
Australian Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton said nine out of 10 of the high-priority intelligence investigations underway were being undermined by suspects’ use of encrypted messaging.
“That’s an unacceptable risk in this environment,” he said.
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