2005 Sydney terrorism plot

The 2005 Sydney terrorism plot concerned a group of five men arrested in 2005 on charges of planning an act of terrorism targeting Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, Australia. The group was found guilty on October 16, 2009 and awaits sentencing.

Charges

Khaled Cheikho, Moustafa Cheikho, Mohamed Ali Elomar, Abdul Rakib Hasan, and Mohammed Omar Jamal were arrested in various neighborhoods of Sydney and were tried in the New South Wales Supreme Court over a terror-related plot they are alleged to have been planning between July 2004 and November 2005. Each pled not guilty to charges of conspiring to commit a terrorist act or acts. The final cost of the trial is expected to be more than $10 million.

The Crown Prosecutor claimed that the men were motivated by a belief that Islam was under attack. The five allegedly had links to Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who is under arrest in Melbourne. Police searches of the men's homes discovered instructions on bomb-making, militant Islamist literature, footage of beheadings carried out by Islamists, and airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. According to the prosecution, the men purchased explosive chemicals and guns between July 2004 and November 2005.

Trial

The men were put on trial late in 2008. Closing arguments were heard on July 28, 2009. The trial took place in a specially built high-security court building in Sydney. Prosecutor Richard Maidment claimed that the five men wanted "violent jihad which involved the application of extreme force and violence, including the killing of those who did not share the fundamentalist... extremist, beliefs". A mistrial was almost declared when the defence asked for the jury to be dismissed; it was discovered that a young woman, who was a relative of one of the accused, had been coming to court and reportedly writing down descriptions of the jurors. However, the jurors said it would not affect their deliberations and the judge allowed the trial to continue.

Verdict

The five were found guilty on October 16, 2009. The trial was one Australia's longest and involved approximately 300 witnesses and 3,000 exhibits, including 18 hours of telephone intercepts and 30 days of surveillance tapes. Outside the court, supporters of the five men shouted in protest and anger after they watched the ruling on an outdoor screen.

The men will return to the New South Wales Supreme Court on December 14, 2009 for sentencing. They face a maximum sentence of life in prison. The precise target of their planned attack has never been disclosed.