(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Court documents have revealed Australia's spy agency ASIO was fed information about two Sydney men who were plotting to carry out a terrorist attack on behalf of the so-called Islamic State.
Omar Al-Kutobi a refugee from Iraq, 25, and Mohammad Kiad a student from Kuwait, 27, were under surveillance for about a month when they were arrested and charged with preparing to carry out a terrorist attack in February 2015.
The court documents state the pair was planning to target a Shiite prayer hall in western Sydney with an "incendiary device", but that plan was abandoned in favour of an alleged plot to attack a person or persons with a bladed weapon.
Omar Al-Kutobi being sentenced for preparing for a terrorist act in Sydney of Australia claims he decided not to bomb a Shia Mosque after seeing a man nearby, and then lied to an so-called Islamic State recruiter about why he backed out, a court has heard.
He said he made up a story about being chased by police because he didn’t want to do something that could hurt someone, he told the NSW supreme court on Thursday.
“Everything that happened, I’m really sorry about it,” Al-Kutobi told Judge Peter Garling. “No matter what I say, it’s not going to enough, to express my sorriness to the Australian society.”
“I’m guilty of the actions that I’ve done, Your Honour, and if I wasn’t guilty the police wouldn’t charge me.”
“When we saw him, straight away we changed our minds and ran back,” he claimed when questioned.
Two days later, Al-Kutobi bought a large hunting knife and was filmed, by Kiad, kneeling in front of an Islamic State flag in their Fairfield granny flat.
“I swear to God almighty, yellow people, there is no reproach between us,” he said in the video. “You will only get from us the stabbing of your kidneys.”
Police arrived at the property less than 30 minutes after the video was recorded, also discovering a note which said “we are here to cut off your heads”, along with home made napalm, a machete, a hunting knife and instructions and ingredients to make an improvised explosive device.
Al-Kutobi and Mohammad Kiad have both pleaded guilty to one count each of doing an act in preparation or planning of a terrorist act.
They didn’t follow through with their plan at the western Sydney Shia prayer hall on the evening of 8 February 2015.
The court heard on Wednesday that the pair, who had made arrangements to travel to Syria before their 2015 arrest, are also accused of planning to detonate a bomb and kill a member of the public with a knife.
Al-Katobi denied there were further targets and said there were no plans to attack a police station.
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