Move FM Australian News

MELBOURNE, Victoria – Three men who plotted to use improvised bombs and machetes to behead people, in a terrorist attack in Melbourne, Australia’s city-centre during the 2016 Christmas period, were jailed on Friday.

The men, all Australian nationals with a Turkish background, had planned to inflict maximum bloodshed and community fear, in an operation that was foiled by the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team.

The masterminds were arrested on 22 December 2016 while detectives from Operation Kastelholm seized machetes, partly constructed IEDs and electronic devices containing Islamic State propaganda material and bomb-making instructions when they searched the men’s homes in Melbourne’s north-western suburbs.

The three men were found guilty by a jury in October 2018, convicted of one count each of conspiracy to undertake acts in preparation for or planning a terrorist act.

On Friday, one of the organisers, a 24-year-old man was sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment.

A 25-year-old man and a 27-year-old man were each sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment. These two men are already serving jail terms for a separate attack and 16 years of Friday’s sentence must be served cumulatively on their existing term. That results in a new head sentence of 38 years each, with a minimum non-parole period of 28 years and six months.

Another man had earlier pleaded guilty to his role in the terror plot and was sentenced to 24 years’ jail with a non-parole period of 20 years.

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team which foiled the plot, and brought the perpetrators to justice, comprise the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

(Photo credit: SBS Australia).